Tech Tips – Page 13 – Iowa City Technology Services

Microsoft Outlook Version 15.8 for Apple Mac Crashing on Startup

March 25, 2015 by Greg Johnson, posted in Computer Support, Software, Support, Tech Tips

If you’re using Microsoft Outlook Version 15.8 for Apple Mac and it is crashing on startup. You may want to try following these steps to restore normal operation.

Open the Terminal program.
Type defaults delete com.microsoft.Outlook and press Enter. This will delete the old preferences.
Type killall cfprefsd and press Enter to stop the cached prefs.
Launch Outlook again.
You’ll see the welcome screens as if you’re running Outlook for the first time. If you previously setup Outlook and had imported from the old 2011 version, you can skip that step when prompted.

Apple Notes Program Undo Delete or Recycle Bin

February 27, 2015 by Greg Johnson, posted in Mobile Devices, Tech Tips

The Problem

Most programs have a built-in trash or recycle bin so that deleted items can be recovered. It’s very disconcerting if you’re using a program that doesn’t have an undo feature or trash/recycle folder where deleted items can be recovered from. The Apple Notes program is an example of a program without an undo feature or trash/recycle folder.

The Solution

The solution to this problem is to create a folder called trash and instead of deleting items, move them to the trash folder.

Setup and Use Apple Mac Handoff in iOS and OS X Yosemite

February 26, 2015 by Greg Johnson, posted in Tech Tips

Handoff is one of the new Continuity features introduced in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, letting users begin a task on one device and seamlessly pick it up on another.

To use Handoff, you must login to iCloud on your Apple computer and iOS device first and have the feature turned on. On Apple computers, this is found under Settings > General. On Apple mobile devices, this is found under Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps.

Handoff may already be on by default. If so, you may have noticed alerts for incoming phone calls on your computer screen or you may have noticed a small icon in the lower left corner of your iPhone (or iPad/iPod) lock screen. This icon indicates that a supported app/program is running on your desktop Apple computer and you can access the same app and whatever file or task you were doing in the identical spot. On the desktop computer, you may notice an additional icon to the left of the Dock.

There are probably many specialized programs on either your computer or iOS mobile device. The Handoff feature only works with selected programs that are on both systems such as Pages, Keynote, Numbers, and the Safari or Chrome browsers (for example).

Video

Below is a video by MacRumors showing how to setup and use Handoff.

Economical Standing Workstation Computer Desk Solution

February 25, 2015 by Greg Johnson, posted in Hardware, Tech Tips, Technology Devices

The JustStand.org website lists many proven clinical health benefits of standing more at work.

The cost of an adjustable standing workstation can be hundreds of dollars, and many companies are spending thousands of dollars to purchase adjustable standing workstation conversion kits for all of their employees.

An option that may be more practical and cost-effective would be to consider all-in-one touchscreen computers like the one shown here that can accommodate working while standing up or sitting down. The model shown here is a Dell All-In-One 9010. The current version of this computer is the 9030 model for $900 (there’s currently a $385 discount off the $1285 price).

No other expensive equipment or office furniture is required. These work well with existing office furniture. With the screen tilted up it is possible to use the onscreen keyboard and the touchscreen replaces the need for a mouse. When sitting it is possible to switch back to the traditional keyboard and mouse interaction. This approach could save hundreds of dollars per person, and the health benefits would be significant.

Another health benefit of this workstation configuration is that by using the touchscreen display the left and right hands are engaged in the touchscreen activity rather than having a very narrowly defined mouse clicking action performed solely by one hand — which can lead to repetitive stress injuries.

Transcription, Subtitles, and Captioning Made Easy

February 24, 2015 by Greg Johnson, posted in Tech Tips

The demand for transcription, subtitles, and captioning is in the rise. As people are increasingly watching television and other video sources in noisy venues, or quiet venues, we’re not able to rely on the soundtrack that accompanies videos. There’s also the need to meet accessibility requirements for those unable to hear audio.

Challenges

Automated voice to text systems, like the captioning service provided by YouTube, typically have too many errors to provide a meaningful and effective text description of what’s being said.
Paying for transcription or captioning services is very costly.
Doing the work yourself is time consuming and can require expensive software (although free options exist).

Better Audio Quality

One of the problems with Google or any voice to text system is that there are difficulties with playing back poor quality recordings of spoken words. While recorded speech may sound fine to us, it lacks the original nuances that software needs for better accuracy. When interpreting speech, our brains are able to correct for a lot of background noise. The audio quality standards that may have been adequate in the past, are now not sufficient for automated captioning. A solution is to use the best microphones and audio possible, including clip-on microphones, that will clearly pick up as many subtleties as possible from the person speaking.

Realtime Parallel Translation Transcription

In the past it was necessary to purchase expensive voice to text dictation software, along with a high quality microphone, and spend a considerable amount of time training the software to recognize your voice. Even then, the results were often not very accurate.

With the introduction of Siri (on the iPhone), dictation from voice to text was made available for free, to everyone, without any training required. Anyone could speak into an iPhone and see their words typed. This is because the audio of your spoken words are being sent over the Internet to a very powerful computer and returned as text.

“The technology behind Siri was actually first developed by SimulScribe to convert telephone voicemail messages to text. Sometime around the year 2007, in speaking with the president of the company, I asked if they were using a technology similar to echelon. He told me that it wasn’t similar to echelon, but in fact was echelon. They were renting computing time on the government surveillance supercomputers that were so powerful they could convert any speech to text. This is how the transcription could be so accurate.” ~ Greg Johnson

While Siri works well with live speech, it’s not so effective with recorded speech.

For anyone wanting quick transcription, here’s a quick, easy, and inexpensive solution. Put on some headphones and as you’re watching the video you want transcribed, simply talk into your iPhone word-for-word everything that’s being said in the video and enjoy the convenience of nearly 100% accurate transcription! This works for videos or audio-only recordings.

Instruction Guide for Replacing an iPhone

February 20, 2015 by Greg Johnson, posted in Mobile Devices, Tech Tips

Follow these instructions if you’re upgrading or replacing an iPhone.

Backup. Backup your current (old) phone using iTunes. You may already have an iCloud backup, but a local backup will be a faster method. This will require synchronizing the phone which may involve transferring purchased or upgraded apps to or from the phone. You may also be prompted to perform any updates for the phone. It may be faster to use iTunes (and a fast Ethernet connection) to download the latest updated apps. Once everything is updated in iTunes and on the iPhone, and backed up, you are ready for the next step.
Logout of iCloud. Logout of your iCloud account on the iPhone. Without doing this, Apple will still have a record of the phone as being assigned to your iCloud account and nobody else will ever be able to use the phone until it is deauthorized and disconnected.
Secure Erase. From Settings > General > choose to Reset all data and settings.
Restore Backup to New iPhone. You can now restore the backup made in step #1 to the new replacement iPhone. Start iTunes and connect the phone. You’ll see a message in iTunes stating “Welcome to Your New iPhone” and “Restore from this backup” will have the most recent backup selected. You may also see a message stating that an update is available for the phone. You screen may look like the one below. Click the image for a larger view.
License Agreement. Accept the license agreement by checking the box and clicking Continue as shown below. Click the image for a larger view.
Restore Progress. You’ll see a message, “Restoring iPhone from backup” with the estimated time remaining as shown below. The time remaining may fluctuate during the restore process since it is an estimate based on the current transfer process.
Restart. After the iPhone is restored, it will be restarted.
Available Updates. Even though the phone is new, you may be reminded of available updates. It’s common that new computers and devices need updates after purchase. Examples of update notifications are below. You can ignore or cancel these for now. If you have an option to download only, you can choose that.
Initial Setup Wizard. When your phone has restarted, it will still say “Hello” as if it’s a brand new phone. This is because the initial startup sequence hasn’t run yet. Walk through the navigated guide to perform the initial setup. You can setup the touch ID (fingerprint access) during the phone setup process, or you can do it later.
Account Passwords. You’ll be asked to enter the passwords for all your email accounts, social networks, and other online accounts. This is to avoid someone restoring your backup to a device and having full access to any accounts with saved passwords.
Synchronize Apps. The restoration process will involve copying all apps from iTunes back to the iPhone. The reason this happens is because the iPhone backup does not seem to make an extra copy of the apps during the backup process (since they are already in iTunes or available in the cloud). So, the iPhone backup contains your unique user settings and data. The synchronization process may take a while if you have many apps and/or larger apps.
Google Accounts. For Gmail accounts that have additional security measures enabled, you may need to generate a password from the app passwords generator. These are found under your Google Account security settings. You can delete (revoke) any previous access codes generated for your old phone.
Facebook. For Facebook accounts that have additional security measures enabled, the Facebook app may prompt you to enter a uniquely generated password key that will be sent via SMS.
Update. After your phone has completed the initial synchronization, this would be a good time to perform the iOS update if available. Even if your old phone had the latest iOS, your new phone, even though restored from a backup, may not have the latest iOS, and since this isn’t part of the backup/restore image the update will need to be done manually. You can perform an iOS update from within the phone under Settings > General > Software update. Or, you can do it from within iTunes under the iPhone page.
Disable iPhoto Launch. By default, your phone may automatically launch iPhoto when it is connected to your Apple computer. To disable this, close out of iPhoto and open Image capture from the Applications list. Select your device, and then expand the options window in the lower left corner by clicking the tiny triangle in the box as shown below. Click the image for a larger view.
From the options menu, under “Connecting this iPhone opens” choose “No Application” from the drop-down menu as shown below. Click either image for a larger view.
Connection Error. At some point along the way you may see a connection error like the one below. If so, click the OK button. Exit iTunes and start again. You should be able to connect. Make sure the phone is on and logged in when starting iTunes.
Backup. After performing all of the above steps, you may not yet have a backup of your new device. From within iTunes, on the device page, under Backups, choose to backup to ‘This computer’ and click on the ‘Back Up Now’ button under ‘Manually Back Up and Restore.’ Click the image below for a larger view.

At this point, you new phone should be setup, backed up, and ready to use.

Outlook Setup for Enterprise Use of Office 365

February 17, 2015 by Greg Johnson, posted in Enterprise Technology, Tech Tips

If you’re using an enterprise computer system that’s automatically configured to work with Outlook Exchange servers, you’ll find that the setup process fails upon launching Outlook. This page describes what to do for first time use of an account.

You’ll need to cancel and quit out of the automated process, and then follow these steps.

Go to Control Panel.
Search for (or click on) the Mail icon.
An account may have been automatically generated. It’s the one that failed to setup properly. You can delete that one (assuming you’ve never used it and this is a first-time setup).
Add an account.
Provide your email address and password.
Outlook should properly configure for you and automatically identify that you’re using an Office 365 enterprise email account.

Duo Two-Step Authentication: Changing Smartphone Devices

February 17, 2015 by Greg Johnson, posted in Enterprise Technology, Tech Tips

Summary

If your organization or business uses Duo two-step authentication, you have likely setup a smartphone with the Duo software. This page describes how to switch to a new phone after you’ve discarded, sold, lost, or traded in an older phone.

Before Adding Your New Device

Because you no longer have access to the phone that was previously setup for Duo access, you won’t be able to login as you have in the past to setup a new Duo device.

However, when you go to login, usually there’s an option to authenticate via a phone call. If you’ve setup a new phone with your same phone number, then you can authenticate and login that way.

Once you login, you’ll see your old device listed as the primary/default device. There won’t be an option to delete it.

You’ll likely, intuitively, attempt to add an additional device. However, this won’t work because your new device has the same phone number as your old device, so the system will generate an error when you try to add it again under the same phone number.

You might think that you could setup the Duo app on your replacement phone, but that won’t be possible because once a device is setup, there doesn’t seem to be a way to generate the barcode to setup the software again.

There may be a link stating, “I need to reset/replace this device.” However, if that link isn’t present under your old smartphone description, you’ll need to follow these additional steps to replace it.

To Delete Your Old Device

What you’ll need to do is add an additional authentication method such as ‘phone call’ to a phone you have access to, and set it as the default device.

Then, and only then, will you be able to remove your old device by clicking on its description link, and then pressing the Delete Device button.

At this point you can follow the steps below to add your new device.

Add Your New Device

At this point, you can choose the ‘Add additional device’ option to add the new replacement smartphone.
Provide the phone number, preferred authentication method (the Duo app), and a description.
Continue to view the barcode.
Start the Duo software on your smartphone.
Choose Add Account.
Scan the barcode displayed on your computer screen.
Test the Duo authentication.
Approve the test login request on your smartphone.
You should get a message on your computer stating the test was successful. Close that window.
You’ll see your list of devices.
Click the description link for your new smartphone. Choose to make it the Default.
If you used a telephone number temporarily as a default device as described above, you can remove it now. Click on the description link and press the Delete Device button.

Apple iPhone App Updates Number Won’t Reset or Clear

February 16, 2015 by Greg Johnson, posted in Mobile Devices, Tech Tips

You may find yourself in a situation where your iPhone app updates number won’t reset or clear. This can happen after restoring a phone using iTunes. It could happen if you’ve updated the apps in iTunes and synchronized your phone, but the App Store on the phone doesn’t acknowledge that the apps have updated.

There will be a notification on the iPhone App Store icon indicating a certain number of updates are pending, but when you check they have already been updated. Restarting the phone won’t fix the problem.

At some point, additional apps on the iPhone will have updates available. At that time, the App Store will recalculate the number of available apps and display the correct number.

Ransomware Malware Virus Prevention, Protection, and Recovery

January 31, 2015January 31, 2015 by Greg Johnson, posted in Computer Support, Security, Tech Tips

About Ransomware

Ransomware malware viruses infect a computer and make the user’s files inaccessible by encrypting them. In some cases the computer is left only partially usable. The user is given some instructions on how to get their files back. Usually this involves communicating directly with someone who will ask you for money before they will let you have access to your files again. They may also promise to fix the computer so that it will function again.

It is estimated that there are presently over 250,000 kinds of ransomware viruses. In 2013, just one of these viruses alone resulted in the extortion of an accumulated $3 million from all its victims before it was taken down by authorities. (source)

Ransomware Prevention

Some antivirus software providers, such as Kaspersky, promise that their software can protect against ransomware. This statement is on the Kaspersky website:

“To protect your computer from ransom malware, download and install Kaspersky Internet Security 2015. The application provides high-level protection against ransom malware.” (source)

Avoid Pop-Up Messages. Another important prevention measure is to be very careful with any unusual pop-up messages. Avoid clicking until you can be certain that the message is legitimate, or simply shut down the computer and restart.

Take Email Precautions. One way of getting ransomware is clicking on links in spam emails. Services like Gmail from Google examine all emails flowing through their system and monitor for malicious activity. So, for example, let’s say there is a fake message claiming to be from FedEx about a package that couldn’t be delivered. Google would likely identify that email as not having authentically been sent from Federal Express. So, it would end up in your spam folder with a notice, “We couldn’t verify that this message was really from the claimed sender” or “We’ve identified other messages like this one that are malicious.”

Use AntiVirus Software. Most antivirus software should prevent virus-like activity even from viruses that were previously unknown. Comprehensive Antivirus software can warn you of known malicious websites. In this way, they make browsing the web safer.

Use an Apple Computer. There are currently over 17 million known Windows computer viruses. The current number of Apple viruses are currently very limited. Apple computers are susceptible to security problems found in Adobe Flash and Java, so it’s important to stay updated. There have been a few fake Apple programs people have been deceived into installing, such as Mac Defender. A report of Apple viruses over the past 10 years is only a few pages long. (source) So, while Apple computers are not completely immune to viruses, they may be a better choice for security minded people.

Ransomware Protection

As described above, there are some preventative measures you can take. Ransomware protection are measures you can take to protect and limit the potential damage of a Ransomware attack.

Backups. Some backup programs run daily to maintain a backup of all your files. This is helpful, except in cases where your files have become corrupted or maliciously encrypted. In some cases, a good backup can be overwritten by a bad one. Also, a connected backup drive is accessible to viruses that might try to erase or encrypt files. In these cases, it may be best to maintain a separate manual backup of your files on a drive that remains disconnected from your computer in a safe place.

Cloud Synchronization. If you use a service like Dropbox to maintain a synchronized cloud copy of your files, make sure you have the ability to access previous versions of your files in the event they get damaged.

Ransomware Recovery

The most recent update about ransomware is an article from Sophos on 30 January 2015. (source) The article states:

Crypto-Ransomware is a family of malware that takes files on a PC or network storage, encrypts them, and then extorts money to unlock the files. … These encryptor malwares will encrypt pictures, documents, and videos, and then leave a ransom note in each directory after encrypting at least one file in that directory. They also typically attempt to do this to mapped network drives [or attached backup drives] as well. … Ransomware-encrypted files for most variants cannot be recovered at all. The encryption keys are not stored on the system. There is one variant which can be recovered, which is discussed below. … W32/VirRnsm-A infects files and changes them to .exe files, including the virus code. It still allows the file to open initially so it has a chance to spread. After a while it locks out the files. The good news is that these files, unlike most ransomware, can be recovered and cleaned by Sophos. A full system scan will fix and recover your files.” (source)

With so many variations of ransomware, it’s unlikely that encrypted files could be recovered unless they happen to be the result of the W32/VirRnsm-A variant.

Yet, some tools from Kaspersky (listed below) suggest that decryption may be possible if you have an original file that’s not encrypted and can compare this to an encrypted file.

Software Tools

Here are some software tools that might help with removal and/or recovery of files.

Kaspersky WindowsUnlocker – The Kaspersky WindowsUnlocker utility is designed to disinfect registries of all operating systems installed on the computer (including operating systems installed on different partitions or in different folders on one partition) and disinfect user registry trees. Kaspersky WindowsUnlocker does not perform any actions with files (in order to disinfect files you can use Kaspersky Rescue Disk).
RakhniDecryptor – utility for removing Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Rakhni
RannohDecryptor – If the system is infected by a malicious program of the family Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Rannoh, Trojan-Ransom.Win32.AutoIt, Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Fury, or Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Cryakl, all files on the computer will be encrypted. To decrypt files affected by Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Rannoh, Trojan-Ransom.Win32.AutoIt, Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Fury, Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Crybola or Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Cryakl, use the RannohDecryptor utility.
RectorDecryptor – Kaspersky Lab specialists have developed a special utility for decrypting the data encrypted by Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Rector. Cybercriminals use Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Rector for disrupting normal performance of computers and for unauthorized modification of data making it unusable. Once the data has been “taken hostage” (blocked), its owner (user) receives a ransom demand. The victim is supposed to deliver the ransom in exchange for pirate’s promise to send a utility that would restore the data or repair the PC.
XoristDecryptor – There is a utility to confront malware of the family Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Xorist, Trojan-Ransom.MSIL.Vandev – XoristDecryptor. Malware of the family Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Xorist, Trojan-Ransom.MSIL.Vandev is designed for unauthorized modification of data on a victim computer. It makes computers uncontrollable or blocks its normal performance. After taking the data as a “hostage” (blocking it), a ransom is demanded from the user. The victim is supposed to deliver the ransom to the pirate, who is promising to send in return a program which would release the data or restore normal performance of the computer.

Instructional Videos

These videos refer to variants of ransomware. They may not be specific to your own experience, but the general information presented should be helpful. These videos provide an insight into the variety of ransomware and what the recovery solutions might be.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dKBXeoLIFo] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_7wUXzhRD8] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJagR2txHJU] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKy9X–ffw8] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcj9RKO3e38]

Category: Tech Tips

Microsoft Outlook Version 15.8 for Apple Mac Crashing on Startup