Use Facebook Messenger on Windows

If you’re a casual Facebook user that mainly uses the popular social network to message and chat with friends, but prefers to avoid things like the extreme amount of apps, invites, games and other add-ons that the site now offers, you may want to consider using Facebook Messenger for Windows, to simplify your Facebook usage. Facebook has mobile apps for Android and iOS, but the Windows desktop Facebook app is a bit different.

Facebook integration with other technology based products is becoming a bit more common. For example, Apple’s upcoming mobile OS that powers the iPhone and iPad, iOS 6, is set to have core Facebook integration. With FB Messenger, you can add a Facebook app to the Windows operating system.

To get started, launch a web browser and navigate to the Facebook homepage. From there, proceed to sign-in to your account.

Once signed in, simply jump to the Facebook Messenger for Windows page.

Click the Install Now button to begin downloading the Facebook desktop software. Facebook will prompt you to begin downloading Messenger. Click the Save File button.

Double click the downloaded FB file to begin the install. From here, the program will download the actual app and install it.

With the software installed on a Windows PC, it should auto launch the desktop app. If not, manually open Facebook Messenger using the path Start > All Programs > Facebook > Facebook Messenger.

From there, you will be presented with a basic Facebook login screen:

Proceed to enter your Email address and Password for Facebook and click the Log In button. From here, you will instantly be presented with the simplistic Facebook Messenger for Windows interface.

Note that aside from basic Facebook chat, this app also provides functions to accept friend requests, view Facebook messages, search Facebook and even view notifications, all from your desktop.

The app is somewhat Skype like or AIM like in nature, but this simplicity is what some casual Facebook users may find preferable.

That’s basically all there is to it. With this basic app, you can use the core, social features of Facebook in a simple, minimalistic desktop window, rather than having to sign in to the site from a web browser. This method of using your Facebook account also prevents several bothersome things that many people may not use, such as the games, apps, surveys, and other crazy things on Facebook these days.

Get a Facebook account, download this app, and use Facebook that way for less games and more simplicity. Thank you for stopping by the site for today’s post.

Monitor Hidden Website and Internet Connections

Aside from the current website that you are visiting, which at the moment is Online-Tech-Tips, your computer also connects to inbound and outbound sources and websites that are for the most part running in the background. While the majority of these website communications are harmless, some can be gateways for viruses and malware. Even so, it’s sometimes interesting to monitor the background services that your computer uses.

The websites and other internet connections that your computer makes are of course to webpages that you have opened in your web browser. However, the many programs and applications that you have installed on your computer, and even some technologies built-in to the actual operating system, also connect to external websites and internet based services. Here are a few ways to monitor and detect these internet ports.

Using Windows Operating System

Since Windows XP, the Windows operating system has supported a monitoring function that is accessible via an elevated command prompt.

netstat -abf 5 > activity.txt

• -a show all connections
• -b application connections
• -c DNS name and details

Ctrl + C stops recording

Detailed instructions: Click the Start menu and type cmd into the search box. Right-click on the cmd search result and select Run as administrator from the context menu.

Type the characters netstat –abf 5 > activity.txt and hit the enter key. Wait a few minutes for Windows to record some of the processes.

Type Ctrl + C on your keyboard to stop recording. The command window cannot open the records directly, but it can export them.

Type activity.txt and hit the enter button. Notepad will now open with the recorded internet connections.

Using an App

Jump to the Nirsoft CurrPorts homepage and download the the CurrPorts app.

Double click to launch the cports.exe file. From there, the CurrPorts app will instantly monitor and display hidden port and internet connections running in the background.

Nirsoft is the developer of the Wi-Fi Network monitor software, also. Jump to our tutorial to learn how to monitor connections to your Wi-Fi network (wireless router).

The Nirsoft CurrPorts app lists detailed information regarding port usage and background internet connections of a computer.

Using Mac OS X

If you’re a Mac user, you can view detailed internet port connection info using the Network Utility.

From the Mac OS X home screen, navigate the path Finder > Applications > Utilities > Network Utility. With Network Utility open and active on screen, click the Netstat tab to make it active.

Select a display option and click the Netstat button.

Blocking and Stopping Hidden Internet Connections and Ports

In some cases, you can kill or block some of these hidden processes that we described above. For this, you will need a fairly decent Firewall application. Both Windows and Mac have built-in firewall software, but you may want to check out the following for more simplicity and easier setup:

• Little Snitch (Mac)
• Comodo (Windows)

That’s basically all there is to it. Most of the time, these processes and ports that are running in the background are non harmful and simply used to keep every computer that is connected to the internet operating correctly with the many services that require internet in order to function.

However, you can also use the above tutorial to check for unknown processes like viruses and malware who often use ports and incoming and outbound internet connections also. We’ve also listed some utilities for Mac and Windows that can help you to kill or block these internet processes. Thank you for stopping by the site for today’s post.

Windows 7:- Improvements to Remote Assistance

Remote Assistance in Windows 7 builds upon the many enhancements introduced earlier for this feature in Windows Vista. These earlier enhancements improved upon the earlier Windows XP implementation of Remote Assistance and included:

1) Connectivity improvements with transparent NAT traversal using Teredo and Pv6.

2) An improved user interface that is easier to launch and use

2) A standalone executable (Msra.exe) that accepts command-line arguments and can easily be scripted

3) Improved overall performance with a smaller footprint, quicker startup and connect times, and optimized bandwidth usage for screen updates

4) Enhanced security with mandatory password and integration with UAC

5) New Offer RA via IM scenario and an open API for integration with peer-to-peer applications

6) Additional Group Policy settings for improved manageability

In addition to these Windows Vista enhancements for Remote Assistance, Windows 7 adds the following new enhancements to Remote Assistance:

7) Easy Connect, a new method for soliciting RA that uses the peer-to-peer collaboration infrastructure to simplify RA user interactions.

8) An improved RA connection wizard that makes it easier than ever for users to solicit or offer help.

9) New command-line arguments for the RA executable (Msra.exe)

Remote Assistance in Windows 7 and Vista deprecate the following features that were available on Windows XP:

10) No more support for the MAILTO method of solicited Remote Assistance

11) No more support for voice sessions

For information on interoperability between the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 versions of Remote Assistance, see the section titled ?"Interoperability with Remote Assistance in Windows XP" later in this chapter.

Windows 7:- Remote Assistance vs. Remote Desktop

Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop are different features of Windows 7 that have entirely different uses. 

Remote Desktop is based on Microsoft Terminal Services and is a tool for remotely logging on to remote computers. 

When you use Remote Desktop to connect to a remote computer, a new user session is established. Remote Desktop can also establish sessions with computers that have no interactive sessions running (no users logged on locally), such as headless servers. 

For more information on Remote Desktop, see Chapter 28, ?Connecting Remote Users and Networks. Remote Assistance, on the other hand, is a tool for interactively helping users troubleshoot problems with their computers. To use Remote Assistance, both the User (also called the Novice) and the Helper must be present on their computers. 

Unlike Remote Desktop, Remote Assistance does not create a new session. Instead, Remote Assistance allows the Helper to work in the existing session of the User. The User’s desktop gets remoted to the Helper, who can then view the User’s desktop and, with the User’s consent, share control of the desktop. 

Here is another way to summarize the difference between these two features: In Remote Assistance, both users involved are looking at the same desktop using the same logon credentials (those of the interactively logged-on User) and can share control of that desktop; in Remote Desktop, when the remote person logs on, the interactively logged-on user (if one exists) is logged out.

http://computertriksno1.blogspot.in/2012/06/windows-7-understanding-remote.html

Windows 7:- Understanding Remote Assistance

Supporting end users is an essential function of  IT departments and the corporate Help Desk. Unfortunately, conventional technical support provided over the telephone or using chat tools is generally cumbersome and inefficient. As a result, supporting users is often both time-consuming and costly for large enterprises to implement. For example, end users often have difficulty describing the exact nature of the problem they are having. Because of their general inexperience and lack of technical knowledge, end users may try to describe their problem using nontechnical, inexact language. As a result, Help Desk personnel are generally reduced to asking a series of simple questions to try to isolate the problem the user is having. The methodical nature of these questions sometimes causes users to feel as if Help Desk personnel are being condescending, and such misunderstandings can reduce the effectiveness of the support experience and can make users tend to avoid contacting support personnel when future problems arise.

End users also often have difficulty following instructions given to them by Help Desk personnel who are trying to assist them. Well-trained support personnel will try to avoid using technical jargon when communicating with end users, but although using plain language can improve the support experience, it may also mean that resolution steps become long and tiresome. For example, telling a user how to use Disk Cleanup from System Tools in Accessories can require several sentences or more, and this kind of communication can add time to support incidents, making them more costly to the company. Remote Assistance (RA) solves these problems by enabling support personnel to view the user’s desktop in real time. The user seeking assistance can demonstrate the nature of the problem to the support person. This is a quicker and more efficient way to communicate a problem than using words or e-mail. If necessary, the user can also give the support person permission to assume shared interactive control of the user’s computer to show the user how to resolve the problem. The result of using Remote Assistance is faster problem resolution, an improved support experience, and a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for supporting end users in large, corporate environments.