Sunday, March 11, 2018

Using Chrome to Block Sound from those pesky sites that start videos when you land on the page

A recent added Chrome feature is blocking the sound of sites.  This is useful when a video starts when you land on a site, even though you don't want the video to play.  I know this irritates me.  For example, the downloads.cnet.com has this on every download page, eg,  http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes/3000-8022_4-10804572.html.

The announcement of this feature is here:  https://blog.chromium.org/2017/09/unified-autoplay.html.  You can Google more about this feature, but the "bottom line" is:  To permanently mute site you visit where you don't want videos to automatically play,

  1. Right click the tab for that web page, at the very top of the browser window, just to the left of the x on the tab. 
  2. (Yes there is a drop down list!)  Pick "mute site" to permanently turn off the site.  
  3. To turn the sound back on, go to the dropdown and "unmute site".
To improve web browser performance for those with slow internet, it would be nice if you could completely and permanently stop the video from playing using the same process.  I'm thinking this will come.  There is another approach that will do just that, but it is techie and is for all web pages.  Instructions:  http://www.thewindowsclub.com/stop-videos-from-playing-automatically-on-websites.

Saturday, March 10, 2018

New Ransomware Technique- ransom note plus sound

The following is a picture of a new ransomware approach.  It includes this full screen display plus sound narration warning of the danger and urging action.  This is done using your device's browser, so, to fix the problem, bring up your task manager and kill the browser task.  Note that their may be many instances of your browser.  Kill them all because the next thing you have to do is clean out your browser caches.  A full instruction guide on eliminating this problem can be found at https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-microsoft-system-security-alert-browser-tech-support-scam.  This is a very complete guide. In general, the threat is removed by cleaning out your caches (use CCleaner free version) and running Malwarebytes.  Download the free trial version of Malwarebytes and keep it running for the trial period.  (To purchase is up to you.  Malwarebytes works in a different way than the antivirus programs and can be added to your security system as an enhancement.  But, if you have the discipline of secure browsing plus manually running Malwarebytes on occasion, you can use the free version.  I need another blog entry to show how to turn your trial into a free version.) 



 

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