Ernie's

I have used a number of distributions over the years, starting with Mandrake Linux which morphed into Mandriva after a few iterations, then when the company stopped distributing/supporting it, I switched to Mageia, a community-based fork of Mandriva that was originated by several members of the Mandriva development team (I had vowed to never use a corporate/Company based/supported distro again as a result of my experience with Mandrake/Mandriva). When I ran into issues I could not resolve with Mageia 8, I used Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) for a time. When Microsoft released Windows 11, I became aware of UEFI with Secure Boot, and I though it was a good idea. For me, security is a layered affair, structured something like an onion. The more layers I can add to my security system, the more roadblocks there are for the bad guys, and each segment of my system that I make more secure adds another layer to my security onion. I mention Secure Boot because none of the distributions I use...

For any GNU/Linux users (Debian based distributions), here is a list of several common apt commands and their descriptions: apt command function of the command apt install Installs a package apt remove Removes a package apt purge Removes all traces of a configuration (including configuration) apt update Refreshes repository index apt upgrade Upgrades all upgradable packages apt autoremove Removes unwanted packages apt full-upgrade Upgrades packages with auto-handling of dependencies apt search Searches for the program apt show Shows package details apt list --upgradable Lists all upgradable packages apt list --installed Lists all i...

I have subscribed to US-CERT Security Advisories, and several other related security advisory mailing lists for more years than I can count. Today, I received an Advisory from US-CERT titled ‘Keeping PowerShell: Measures to Use and Embrace, with a link to a PDF document of the same title, at ‘ Keeping PowerShell: Measures to Use and Embrace | CISA ’. In and of itself, this document is probably not of much interest to most home Windows 10 or 11 users, but reading it informed me that there is a newer and possibly more secure version of PowerShell available to the general public. The document linked above was not very clear about that, but the suggestion was there. I make it a policy to keep all the software on my computers as up to date as possible, based on the information I have at any given point in time, so when I learned that there is a newer version of PowerShell available, of course, I had to get it. WindowsPowerShell 5.1 comes preinstalled in Windows 10 and 11. Since it is needed...

I take my Internet safety and privacy very seriously. I live on a fairly limited fixed income, so I consider anything that has the potential to affect my available resources to be very important. Getting hacked, or having my identity stolen could have very serious consequences for me even though I don't have much to get got. Here are some of the steps I have taken to protect myself, online and off: I have enabled 2FA on all my Internet based accounts that support it. For those accounts that do not yet support 2FA, I have a few alternate email accounts (one for each Internet account that does not support 2FA, also with 2FA enabled) for the account's 'username'. I use Windows 11 with a 'password-less' Microsoft account (using the Microsoft Authenticator App on my mobile phone) and a Bio-metric scanner (backed up with a pin) for log in purposes. My Windows installation's security is hardened by enabling Ransomware protection, so even if some miscreant manages...

Any time we edit the Windows registry, we should make a current registry backup just before editing it. The Windows Registry Editor has a built-in back up feature in the 'File' menu, named 'Export...'. To open the Windows Registry Editor, search for 'reg' in Windows search. Choose 'Registry Editor - App' in the results list to open the registry editor. The registry has five main branches: 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT' 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER' 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE' 'HKEY_USERS' 'HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG' When you choose to export the registry to create a backup, the Registry Editor remembers where you chose to store it. Here is what you have to do to back up the entire registry (or any branch you desire): If you want to back up the entire registry (recommended) make sure 'Computer' is selected at the top of the left pane. If you prefer to back up a single branch, make sure that branch is selected. Click 'File >...

This is for people who dual-boot Windows and GNU/Linux.  If you use both OSs on the same machine, you may have run into an issue with the time display when you switch between GNU/Linux and Windows. If your time is correct in GNU/Linux, it may be off by some number of hours (depending on your time-zone) in Windows (or vice-versa). This is because (by default) Linux sets the system (hardware) clock to UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) while Windows sets it to your LOCAL time. Traditionally, many (but not all) Linux distributions have provided a work-around so your GNU/Linux distribution can set the system (hardware) clock in accordance with how Windows does things. If, when you installed your GNU/Linux OS, you were asked which of two times is the correct one, you are probably all set, and you do not need to read any further (unless you are curious).  On the other hand, if you were not asked the above question, what I have to say here may be of help.  There are three wa...