We repair & perform data recovery on USB flash drives all the time at CompuTechs+ of Chicago – We kind of cringe when we see these promotional drives & here is why: They are hard to find duplicates of the flash drives. Why does a duplicate help? Simply, it is a cheap option to find an identical, mass-made drive by a manufacturer. When you get promotional drives, there is no name-brand on the drive. Sure, the board of the drive has a name on it (most of the time), but the simple fact is that they are harder to come by.

So, if you do value the data that is on your USB flash drive or thumb drive, don’t use the one given to you by a friend or place of work. Buy a major-brand USB flash drive – The more popular, the better. Amazon and NewEgg.com are two good places to buy a flash drive, and find out which are the most popular drives.

Finally, avoid the ‘tiny’ flash drives unless you must have the convenience, and also avoid ‘wafer’ style drives (where the USB end that you stick into your computers USB slot) – If it’s not a typical metal USB end, you don’t want it. I hope this helps explain why certain USB flash drives should be avoided, comment if this helped you.

More than half a million Macs are infected with the Flashback Trojan, a malware package designed to steal personal information, according to a Russian antivirus company.

The company — Dr. Web — originally reported today that 550,000 Macintosh computers were infected by the growing Mac botnet. But later in the day, Dr. Web malware analyst Sorokin Ivan announced on Twitter that the number of Macs infected with Flashback had increased to 600,000, with 274 of those based in Cupertino, California.

More than half of the Macs infected are in the United States (57 percent), while another 20 percent are in Canada, Dr. Web said.

The malware was initially found in September 2011 masquerading as a fake Adobe Flash Player plug-in installer, but in the past few months it has evolved to exploiting Java vulnerabilities to target Mac systems. A new variant that surfaced over the weekend appears to be taking advantage of Java vulnerability for which Apple released a patch yesterday.

As CNET blogger Topher Kessler explains, simply visiting a malicious Web site containing Flashback on an OS X system with Java installed will result in one of two installation routes. The malware will request an administrator password, and if one is supplied, it will install its package of code into the Applications folder. If a password is not offered, the malware will install to the user accounts where it can run in a more global manner.

Once installed, the Flashback will inject code into Web browsers and other applications like Skype to harvest passwords and other information from those program’s users.

We’ve had an influx of ‘parent control’ questions here at CompuTechs+, specifically for the mac, but to be honest the best form of parental control works seamlessly with the PC or laptop as well. Here at CompuTechs+, we have a few techs with kids, and we all employ the same system of protection for our little ones: DNS (Domain Name System) control. This also protects your computer from viruses, malware, and spyware. How and Why?

We employ DNS control because it prevents the ‘bad content’ from being accessible in the first place (think of it as a firewall, before a firewall is needed) – Here at CompuTechs+, we don’t sell software, and in fact, we don’t use traditional firewalls at all; If you are protected properly, there is no need for a time wasting, obtrusive firewall. If the website displays adult images, obscene language, or anything else that is offensive and/or undesirable, we can filter it. The best part? If you have a personal laptop/computer, that one machine can remain unfiltered, so that you can enjoy the web as you see fit while protecting your children from what you find offensive. Every computer on your home wireless network can be protected from this content, or you can choose individually which machines can access which content. For example, you can still access your favorite discussion forum (which may include adult language), while your children cannot simply stumble upon it.

Our DNS controls package is $159.99 (a one-time price via remote assistance, and $249.99 if we have to come to your home, which is rare), includes a custom DNS setup, free remote setup, a custom DNS package of your own, faster website load times, and protection against: Malware, Spyware, Viruses, windows 7 2012 Antivirus (one of the most notorious new viruses), pornography, gore, offensive language, tracking cookies, and much, much more – The small piece of DNS software installed on your machine will always remain in tact, even if your ISP changes your IP address – And, if you opt for all-out DNS control, the DNS addresses will be hard-coded into your router so you will be protected at all times even if you move/change ISPs.

REALLY worried about what your kids might be doing online? We also offer keylogging software installation (records all keystrokes, clicks, websites, emails, etc. performed on any given computer, and emails them to a private email account). Here at CompuTechs+ of Chicago, we would like to express that we do not recommend this, as everyone deserves their own privacy – We only recommend this if you are deeply worried about what is going on behind the keyboard your children are using, and want to say that although it is your right, since you do own that computer, that keylogging software is extremely evasive, and should only be utilized in the most extreme conditions. Most many instances of children/kids looking/saying bad things on the internet is merely a stage of ‘growing up’. Studies have shown that kids that do not ‘get hurt’ growing up (due to parents watching over their kids too closely), perform more poorly later in their lives. Enough about our PSA. Keylogging prices vary depending on circumstances – Please contact us for pricing.

Spill liquid or water on your apple or pc laptop? Not a problem. One of our techs, Jim, has developed a 3-step process that gives CompuTechs+ a 95% laptop repair success rate for laptops. The process takes just a few hours to complete, and we’ve been blown away by its success. Best part is that if you do have liquid damage on your mac laptop, just mention this post & if the repair is not successful you will get a discounted diagnostic rate from $69.99 down to $39.99 – We’re that confident with our process. If successful, then the rate is our current $199.99 flat-repair-rate.

What to do if you spill on your laptop: Turn the laptop off immediately, unplug it, remove battery (if possible), and shake out any excess liquid. After that, place rice in a tub, and place a single layer of paper towels on the rice, and place the laptop upside down on the paper towels. Leave for 2-7 days, depending on the amount of liquid spilled on the machine. We do not recommend attempting to turn the laptop on, mainly because there could be excess liquid still remaining inside the laptop. Better safe than sorry, but if you have a $1500+ laptop, our flat-repair rate is well worth the cost.

What kind of liquids are the worst? We’ve found that although smelly & sticky, that anything other than water seems to have the least amount of damage on the machine. That being said, water is probably the worst – in the 5% (unsuccessful liquid damage repairs), they were almost all water based spills.