Click here for Bob Rankin (again), Speed Up Windows 7. Run "services.msc" and disable a bunch of services you are unlikely to need: 

• Application Experience 
• Error Reporting Service 
• Desktop Window Manager Session Manager (only needed with Aero) 
• Diagnostic Policy Service 
• IP Helper 
• Offline Files 
• Portable Device Enumerator Service 
• Distributed Link Tracking 
• Client Protected Storage 
• Secondary Logon 
• Server (If your computer does not connect with any network) 
• Tablet PC Input Service 
• Themes 
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper 
• Windows Media Center Service Launcher 
• Windows Search 
• Remote Registry
• Windows Time 
• Windows Firewall (most high-speed routers have a firewall built in) 

(I left in Windows Search and Windows Firewall.) You can click on each of the items for a description of what it does before you disable it.

Travel: Bangkok

Click here for 36 Hours in Bangkok from the New York Times.

Where Do You Catch Viruses?

Click here for a Bob Rankin article, How Do Viruses Spread? Contrary to popular belief, most viruses are picked up from mainstream sites, not from the dodgy dark corners of the Internet. Bob gets his information from the 2013 Cisco Annual Security Report, which says, for instance:

E-commerce sites are 21 times more likely to deliver malware than counterfeit software sites, for example. Viewing an online advertisement, you are 182 times more likely to be served malware than you are when viewing porn.

People who write malware are constantly probing for openings on the big mainstream sites, which get a huge volume of traffic. So you can't be safe by just sticking with the big, reputable sites.

The moral of this story is: keep your guard up no matter where you are online. Don’t ignore the warnings of your anti-malware program just because you’re visiting a site that’s familiar and trusted. It’s entirely possible that site has been infected with malware since your last visit. And remember that you don't have to shell out big bucks for good computer security. See my article Free AntiVirus Programs for a list of free alternatives to Norton, McAfee and other commercial antivirus software. 

More from Bob Rankin's Geekly Update, April 13:

Bing delivers five times as many malware websites as Google, according to an 18-month study by AV-Test. Google was rated as the safest search engine, returning only 272 malicious results out of 10 million studied.

Read more: http://askbobrankin.com/geekly_update_18_april_2013.html#ixzz2QqvZGF3a