I’ve always been a believer that new computer users should get themselves a good manual or enrol on a course – just ask the resident family “computer expert” how many times they’ve had to bail out a family member who’s badly infected their PC through not knowing what they were doing – “But it said I’d won an iPod?”.

And forums, often providing a a potential solution to the c0mputer user having problems, can just makes worse. On one such forum, it is often visited by professional and amateurs alike. One of their most striking (and annoying to me) recommendations is for people to ditch commercial anti-virus products for the free equivalents and to generally make the amateur PC user feel worried that their security is at constant risk.

Lets cover that anti-virus recommendation first of all. It’s rubbish. The free equivalents are not as good as the full price equivalents – if you can afford the commercial version, buy it. The free one should be reserved for those poor enough that they can’t afford anything else.

And making them feel paranoid about security means that many talk about turning off cookies and JavaScript, expecting either to be introducing vulnerabilities to their computer. And the result? Well, one user had problems after installing the latest updates to Firefox. In their response they said…

I try very hard to follow advice on this board so far as anti-virus and stuff goes. Norton and McAfee are no-nos.

I run SuperAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes, Security essentials, CrapCleaner, Spyware Blaster and Sunbelt personal firewall.

So, Norton and McAfee are “no-nos”. Great.

And, then, look at that list of software – yep, they’re running a full security program (Microsoft Security Essentials) along with an additional firewall (Sunbelt Personal Firewall) and 3 additional Antispyware products. Wow. But, hey, they’re all free.

And it took a few replies before anybody suggested that maybe, just maybe, it was this combination of clashing software that might have been causing the Firefox problems (which they promptly rejected, uninstalled Firefox, installed Opera and then complained that didn’t work either).

My recommendation – one, commercial, complete security solution (spyware, anti-virus, firewall). Don’t listen to those who say “Don’t buy Norton, your system will grind to a halt”. Yep, old message – the latest versions are much better at keeping resources low.

In fact, Norton Internet Security 2010 is the package I’d recommend. You can get a 1 PC licence for under £11 and £28 for user on 3 computers – hardly a bank  breaker.

If you wish Firefox to look elsewhere for the bookmark file

• Type about:config in the URL bar
• Right click within the window and add a new string entry
• The entry name should be browser.bookmarks.file
• Set its value to the new location (eg F:\bookmarks.html)

The latest version of Xmarks for Firefox has added a new feature where, in the status bar at the bottom of the browser window, there are 5 stars, allowing you to easily rate websites that you visit. Unfortunately, they’re a bit of an “estate” hog and can only be turned off along with the Xmarks icon (which is useful for quick synchronisation). However, there is a way to turn off just the rating stars…

1. Enter about:config in the Firefox address bar
2. Right click in the main screen area
3. Select New -> Boolean
4. Type extensions.xmarks.hideStatusBarStars and press Enter
5. Select the value true

This will forever banish the stars. If you want to bring them back…

1. Enter about:config in the Firefox address bar
2. Find the value extensions.xmarks.hideStatusBarStars
3. Set it to false