One way is to put passwords on any document files that you have such as Word, Excel etc. But bear in mind that these passwords will only deter the casual viewer as they can all be broken with the right software.

Optimist,

Dunno for sure about 2003, but Office XP crackers are freely available and instantly unprotect. There are also rainbow table attack methods available for Windows OS passwords, and if not available already, I would expect that Office passwords were vulnerable in the very near future.

There a goodish article on this in the current PC Pro or PCW

A quick bit off Googling leads me to think that Office 2003 files are already vulnerable.

I've done a bit of digging as regards MS Office encryption. This site appears to have a good summary.

Office 95, 97 and 2000 are not secure at all.

Office 2003 can be made to be secure but the default settings are not.

Office 2007 is secure as long as you save in .docx or .xlsx formats. I seem to remember reading that you have to turn encryption on as well as password protect.

Office 2007 currently uses 128 bit encryption though it can use 256 bit so anything that you save is as secure as your password.

As far as I know, the 128bit encryption can't be cracked but this might be possible in 10 years time. 256bit will not be cracked before they get quantum computers to work.

I think that Jeffie was more worried that Mrs Mack might see the contents of his porn stash than anything else.

:o)

Jeffie: Use Truecrypt. That's what I use for USB sticks. It's also good for securing all or part of your hard disk. Or porn stash. Thanks for the reminder, Hil.

Thks MM, I will give that one a try. As Hils says, cant have Mrs Mack being nosey.

Is anyone having trouble with Google?

Almost every search I make is telling me that "This site may harm your computer"

Any clues, folks?

EDIT. Mended after about 40 mins.

TP

Got it here as well TP, but only with Firefox, not with IE. Can't understand it.

edit - the strange thing is that it doesn't look quite like a Google site - either Google's been hijacked or my PC has.

SC.

Mended. See my edit.

TP

Assume you did nothing. edit - mended here also.

There is a bit of news about it if you look at the "Google news" tab.

Well at least SC and I survived the collapse of life as we know it.......

Scary times....

Back to the fireplace and my Agatha Christie from the lending library

TP

Scary indeed ....

And Google would have us depend on them for all our computing needs, applications, storage, mail, the lot. This is a perfect illustration of the vulnerability that would be visited on us. They're just a giant advertising agency with pretensions, like all advertising agencies.

Evening all,

A bit of info required in return for a funny story........

My eldest Son 16 (not living with me) has been planning his new comp. for about six months I got him for Christmas an Antec 900 case and Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU and he bought the rest with the MB being a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P,a nice rig if put together correctly you might say........

Anyway,got a phone call a few days ago saying that nothing happens when switched on so got the beast back home only to find he'd only put half the MB pillars in and managed to screw one corner of said MB nicely to the case-lolloping lolz!

Crikey,was my next thought!

Anyway,removed everything and put all MB pillars in and wooo hooo there was life but no beeps or BIOS with monitor just looking as though nothing was connected.

He said the graphics card might have been playing up in old machine so hope there then.....I thought.Got a new card and he fitted it tonight with no joy but all fans including CPU still working along with onboard MB CPU status lights appearing to be working ok.

My question is if I remember correctly that the BIOS screen is independent of all external components so you would expect a beep or two whether anything was connected so the MB must have been damaged?

I know it's a daft question-lol

Edit-As a last resort I've told him to disconnect all the peripherals and reset CMOS,it may have been sort of confused with being possibly shorted out-lol

Sounds like a bit of a nightmare, mick! Wish I could help you.
The BIOS does not rely on a soundcard or external speakers as the beeps are routed through the basic PC integral speaker. It could be that speaker has been damaged or disconnected, so it doesn't necessarily follow that the BIOS is faulty, but it does sound to me that there might well be a motherboard fault.

Thanks HC,
Going to get comp.off him over weekend and have a good look.I thought the beeps came from the MB itself ie bult in but as I haven't built a new rig up in over three years I'm a bit rusty........

bjm.
When powered up with a short on the board,
it might have taken down one of the power rails
from the PSU.
Don't know if they S/C protected on modern kit,
but if you've got another PSU might be woth a try.
mac.

I think the chances of the motherboard being OK are sadly pretty slim. Beeps need a speaker connected.