Tech Talk

Tamper protection, PowerPoint > PDF, Pirated software = bad, Death and passwords

Windows Tamper Protection

One of the features in the Windows 10 May 2019 Update is Tamper Protection. Tamper Protection prevents malicious applications from changing your Windows Security settings. A good thing to have, right? So, why is it turned off by default?

Microsoft ships Tamper Protection turned off because it can break enterprise management tools that businesses use. No worries, though, you can turn it on yourself.

Here's how:

Open the Start menu, scroll down to Windows Security. Click Virus & threat protection > Manage settings > Tamper Protection and click the switch to turn it on

If Tamper Protection causes you any problems in the future (highly unlikely), you can turn it off.

Saving a PowerPoint presentation as a PDF

If you need to share your PowerPoint presentation with someone who doesn't have PowerPoint or you want to publish it online, you can save it as a PDF file.

Here's how:

Open your PowerPoint presentation, click on File > Export and click on Create PDF/XPS. File Explorer opens so you can choose where to save your presentation and rename it if you want to. Notice the file type is now PDF.

Underneath the Save as file type drop-down, notice the Optimize for... options. The Standard option is a full file-size option good for printing or publishing online, while the Minimum size option is good for email.

Click on the Options button if you only need to export parts of your presentation.

Once you've got everything the way you want it, click Publish, and that's it.

Don't pirate software

Don't pirate software (as in, using it without paying for it) for many reasons. A new reason is that pirates are hiding malware in some pirated software. Pirated copies of Ableton Live (an expensive music production software package) have been found to contain bitcoin mining software.

The new malware is called Loud Miner or Bird Miner and works by loading an emulated copy of Linux onto the infected computer, which lets it run on any Windows or Mac computer. Bitcoin mining makes a computer work very hard and needs a lot of computing power. By targeting music production software, these malware developers were counting on the fact that expensive software (like Ableton Live) runs on expensive, powerful computers.

When a user runs the pirated software, the emulated Linux copy starts up and monitors the computer's processors before it begins mining. If the processor is running at 85% or more capacity, it won't start mining until more resources are available. The software also closes if an activity monitor is running, staying hidden on the computer.

Just say "no" to pirated software, kids.

Death and passwords

I get it; passwords are a pain. Keeping track of them, updating them, changing them when a bunch of passwords escapes into the wild (hello, data breaches), and even just thinking them up in the first place.

But what happens when we die? Will the people we leave behind be able to get into our bank accounts, our social media, our email, our computers, or our phones? Will they be able to get to our contacts to let folks know what happened to us?

Write your sites, usernames, and passwords down somewhere, anywhere. Write them in a password book from the store, a spreadsheet (printed out), a hand-written piece of paper; something offline on a hard copy. Make yourself a password bible and tell people where you keep it. They may need it and you may not be here to tell them where it is.

Passwords are a pain for all of us. But if we're not here and our people need them, not having them can be a disaster.

(Fictional) texts from Mom

Mom: How make chicken

Daughter: What?

Mom: Where buy chicken

Daughter: Mom, this isn't Google.

Mom: Avocado

Do you have a computer or technology question? Greg Cunningham has been providing Tehachapi with on-site PC and network services since 2007. Email Greg at [email protected].