Don’t Forget!!!

It has been a few days now since Patch Tuesday.  The second Tuesday of every month when Microsoft releases the updates for Windows and the MSRT (Malicious Software Removal Tool).  So if you have not got your Windows Updates by now it means that you do not have “Automatic Updates” turned on and you need to update your computer manually.  To do this you can type http://www.update.microsoft.com in the URL bar and run the updates manually.  Remember, you need to do this from Internet Explorer as other browsers like Firefox, Safari, and Opera will not load the page from Microsoft. If “Automatic Update” is not turned on, you should do that now to ensure that you do not miss any updates or not get an “out of sequence” update should one arise.  To turn auto update on, just go to your Control Panel, and select “Automatic Updates” and turn it on.  It is that simple.

Now since we are on the subject of updating our computers, there were a couple of critical browser updates also.  For Firefox users, Mozilla released a critical update that patches a zero day exploit.  It is very important that you update the browser.  To do so, open up Firefox, click on “Help”, and select “Check for Updates”.  Firefox will do the rest. You should update to version 3.5.1 and you will need to restart the browser after it has updated.  Don’t worry, if you have multiple tabs open, Firefox will restore them after the restart.  If you do not update to 3.5.1, then repeat these steps until you do get the most current version.

For Google Chrome users, you also have a new update that, like Firefox, also patches a zero day exploit that has been labeled as critical.  To get the update, you need to click on the settings selection.  This is a little icon on the right side of the browser page that looks like a wrench.  Select that icon and then click on the “About Google Chrome” option and Chrome will do the rest.  It will automatically search for any available updates.  You should be at version 2.0.172.37, so if that is not the update that you get, keep repeating the update until Chrome updates to that version.

One more thing……Why not take today and run your backups!!!  Click HERE for more information on backing up your data!!!

Happy Computing!!!