Should you wipe old routers before disposal?

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	LANGALIST PLUS Should you wipe old routers before disposal?
	By Fred Langa Disposing of outdated computing hardware often brings up the question of potential security risks. In the case of old network gear, it’s easy to make sure that absolutely no trace of your network setup remains on old, donated gear.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/langalist-plus/should-you-wipe-old-routers-before-disposal/ (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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Re freerider software

Adobe got me yesterday with the new 64bit versions of Flash plugins.
They’re now packing McAfee bloat in there, there was an option to opt-out, but I missed it
I understand why the little guys do it, gives them a bit of loot to pay the rent, so I look for freerider opt-outs.
Given what Adobe charge for Creative Studio, full blown Acrobat etc, why do this – maybe they’re going broke too.

Apparently one of the major download sites is now packing downloads & freeriders into some sort of wrapper
I forget which download site – I always try to use the author site, in a pinch I use filehippo.

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Don’t forget to click Thanks if you find a post useful – its at bottom left of post

You must have missed the post which defines what the Thanks button is for…

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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You must have missed the post which defines what the Thanks button is for…

It was months before I saw the Thanks button, which is when I put that msg into my sig

IMO it should be at the Right Bottom Corner (which is where most other forums seem to have it) and it should be be more prominent.

But its gone now – sorry

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I will just point out the final part of Fred Langa’s column in the latest newsletter, regarding the inability to perform a Windows upgrade if the user data is not in its expected location. Clearly this means the Windows upgrade process fails where it should not fail (if Windows allows moving the different relevant folders to non default locations, upgrading from there should not fail), but it also means that when users are advised to change these locations, they should be informed about the potential consequences.

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Yu posted a note about checking carefully for the box/ place to opt out of unwanted software when downloading other software. I recently found one that required checking the advanced download version before you would see the box to opt out. Fortunately, someone tipped me off to this situation before I downloaded it, as I usually don’t use the advanced version.

Further in the column you talked about not separating user data as it causes problems with upgrading Win7. I often install applications on another partition to avoid having to reinstall them, but find that Win7 can’t find my apps after upgrades. All the data is there, but the OS has no idea that the app was installed.

Leo

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Quite familiar with the problem of “piggybackware”. Last week I went to help a friend who had been taking an enormous hit in response time. After a clean boot, with nothing running (XP SP3) every 10 seconds you could see the hourglass coming on for a good 3 or 4 seconds. Response time was terrible. I finally discovered, in the process of replacing her “Norton nagware” with Microsoft Security Essentials, what was causing the problem. As soon as I uninstalled one of the more obnoxious and recent piggybackware products, the hourglass disappeared and all response time was restored. The product? McAfee Security Center!

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… As soon as I uninstalled one of the more obnoxious and recent piggybackware products, the hourglass disappeared and all response time was restored. The product? McAfee Security Center!

Three of my friends “acquired” the McAfee Security Centre rubbish and had exactly the same problems.

In two cases I tracked to source to different iPhone $apps downloaded from iTunes. Does Apple get 30% of any subsequent McAfee revenue?

The other day I got the same McAfee bloat in a 64bit Flash download from Adobe !!!!

With the exception of MS patches I’m now installing all software into Sandboxie irrespective of source.

Re Windows 7 losing the location of data

Fred’s warning and the MS Technote applies to UPGRADING Windows 7, that is changing from one Edition (e.g. Home Premium) to another Edition (e.g. Professional), or perhaps Vista to Windows 7. On first reading I thought he was referring to UPDATING Windows 7, which had me confused.

If you want to change the location of your data folder the I advise that you use the Location tab in the folder Properties Sheets. If a folder doesn’t have a Location tab in its Properties (eg Favorites) then it can’t be relocated.

If you relocate your My Videos folder to F:Videos, and later you UPGRADE then you’ll need to visit your My Videos folder Properties and change the location to F:Videos.

It appears that an UPGRADE[/B][/U] replaces some registry entries with the default values.

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If you want to change the location of your data folder the I advise that you use the Location tab in the folder Properties Sheets. If a folder doesn’t have a Location tab in its Properties (eg Favorites) then it can’t be relocated.

If you relocate your My Videos folder to F:Videos, and later you UPGRADE then you’ll need to visit your My Videos folder Properties and change the location to F:Videos.

It appears that an UPGRADE[/B][/U] replaces some registry entries with the default values.

Which is how I do it. My data (not user profiles, etc but DATA) is on a separate drive from my OS. I simply relocate my folders accordingly. If I have to format and start all over – rare, to be sure, but it happens – then I don’t have to fret about potential loss of data. Relocating folders takes a relatively short length of time.

Call me old-fashioned but that’s how I roll.

As to McAfee… I nearly got it when I was installing Flash on my new pc. You would think that Adobe wouldn’t do such a thing given the prices they charge for their software. I can understand the little guys’ doing it, but Adobe?

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Philip Dossick is finding public e-mail services too intrusive and invasive.

“Question: is there an e-mail service you can recommend for its quality and integrity with regard to privacy? We are appalled at the increasing invasion of our privacy by Google and others. Our clients are, as well.”
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Try http://www.safe-mail.net. I’ve used them for years. The service is reliable and has rarely gone down. They have a 3MB free account, then you pay for higher storage amounts.

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I think this information is another indication that the old-school advice to separate your user data from the operating system files is obsolete. Nowadays, it causes more problems than it cures

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In defense of data separation
Not obsolete by any stretch just because of this upgrade issue. Sometimes we underestimate our own abilities to fudge our systems beyond repair.
There are still many of us who would rather do a full format and clean install rather than an upgrade.
Sure Windows has come along way in providing plenty of recovery tools and preventative hard-coded actions written into the os, even better and smoother performing upgrades. But that doesn’t mean a sound practice should be abandon. It’s still a viable backup option, part and parcel of a wider backup regimen.

Let us not forget here that the operating system is merely a means to an end and not the end in itself.

That shinny new operating system of yours is still, and will continue to be fallible for the forseable future, and it will break on you.
You just have a few more tools in your arsenal, some of them questionable.

Let the emphasis be on better user education directed toward novices regarding backup regimens. They obviously are in great need of it.

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In defense of data separation
Not obsolete by any stretch just because of this upgrade issue. Sometimes we underestimate our own abilities to fudge our systems beyond repair.
There are still many of us who would rather do a full format and clean install rather than an upgrade.
Sure Windows has come along way in providing plenty of recovery tools and preventative hard-coded actions written into the os, even better and smoother performing upgrades. But that doesn’t mean a sound practice should be abandon. It’s still a viable backup option, part and parcel of a wider backup regimen.

Let us not forget here that the operating system is merely a means to an end and not the end in itself.

That shinny new operating system of yours is still, and will continue to be fallible for the forseable future, and it will break on you.
You just have a few more tools in your arsenal, some of them questionable.

Let the emphasis be on better user education directed toward novices regarding backup regimens. They obviously are in great need of it.

I understand what you are saying and I won’t oppose it. However, I find it’s not that easy for those of use who use their computers in a bit of a different manner. I use my pc also as a development pc, where I have all sorts of database servers, some of which are not very easy to configure to use different paths. Because of that, I don’t do data separation thing. I know it would be easier to recover when something goes wrong and I have had a bit more effort when I need to use my never older than 1 week images, but I couldn’t simply achieve a clean data separation strategy.

I do agree that the emphasis needs to be on a good backup strategy, though.

Personally, with so much stuff I have on my desktop, I always go with the upgrade option, when available. It saves me not only having to install all my apps, but also having to configure IIS and all the other stuff I use. I always need around 2 full days to get a working system when doing a clean reinstall. I know the potential disadvantages, though.

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