Most of you know how to add a website to your Favorites or Bookmarks, but what about those websites that you commonly want to start at? If you often go to your bank's website or other commonly used Internet resources, you can create a shortcut on your Desktop that will launch your browser and take you right to your desired site.

Right-click on any blank portion of your Desktop, click on the New option then on "Shortcut". This will open a "Create Shortcut" window with a field for you to enter your desired website. Example: http://www.datadoctors.com (you don't have to include the http://, but doing so will ensure that the shortcut is seen as an Internet site.) After you enter you desired site and click on the Next button, give you new shortcut a name and click on Finish!

There isn't enough space in this newsletter to cover all of the possible causes for a slow loading web page, but a new cause that seems to be hitting a lot of folks is one that we can cover.

If you have Internet Explorer 7 (or in some cases, an updated version of IE 6) one of the new "security" features is a Phishing filter to detect bogus websites. In order for this filter to work, it must review the contents of the web page before it renders it for you, which can cause an enormous delay on some sites (especially those will lots of frames). To see if the Phishing filter is causing your slow performance, try disabling it, closing your browser and visiting the same site again.

The blue "Taskbar" that usually resides along the bottom of the Windows Desktop can sometimes get moved to the sides or top of the screen if someone happens to drag the mouse just right. The size of the Taskbar can also be increased or decreased by clicking on the top edge of the bar and dragging up or down.

But most folks that we encounter have had these changes occur accidentally (especially on systems that are shared by many users) and they want to keep it from happening in the future. Once you have the Taskbar in the location and size that you want, right-click on any blank part of the Taskbar and select the "Lock the Taskbar" option.

A lesson learned?

Question - My Hotmail account was hijacked and used in an e-mail scam. I had to contact Microsoft in order to get back into my account. Seven years of saved mail was still there! My PC is now in the shop being cleaned. I think a keylogger was installed on my machine when I clicked a link.

After I changed my Hotmail password, I received a message from Amazon. There was suspicious foreign activity on my account. When I clicked on the link provided, Firefox warned me that the site was fraudulent!

This has taught me several lessons. I will keep my security software current. I will scan my system regularly. I will use my MacBook when I go online so I won't encounter this problem again.

Answer - This listener's experience illustrates several important points about computer security.

Spoofing an e-mail address is easy. Spammers do it all the time. Unfortunately, people don't always realize this. Recipients often assume that the message came from the spoofed account.

In this case, it sounds like your account really was hijacked. Fortunately, you were able to get back into your account and change the password.

Now, you assume that Macs are safer than Windows machines. At the risk of angering Mac loyalists, I must disagree. Macs are not inherently safer.

Granted, there have been far fewer attacks on Macs. That's because fewer people use Macs. Criminals want to hit as many targets as possible. So they focus on Windows.

Recently, more people are using Macs. So you can expect to see more malware targeting Macs.

A quick Google search turned up keylogging software for Macs. Rest assured that criminals could infect Macs with keyloggers if they choose.

You speculate that your PC was infected after you clicked a link. That isn't surprising. These days, you need to watch where you click. Criminals often use Web sites to infect computers.

Criminals lure you to their sites with links embedded in e-mail. Or, they may game Google so that their sites get high search rankings. Typing in a brand name or an innocent phrase could land you at a malicious site. Criminals will even buy sponsored search listings.

Malicious sites may use drive-by downloads to infect your machine. Or they could contain Trojans. Trojans are malicious programs that masquerade as something else.

The sites could also be used for phishing. Maybe they don't install anything on your computer. Rather, you're tricked into disclosing user names and passwords.

In case you don't see where I'm going, let me spell it out for you. Criminals can trick you no matter what operating system you use. Using a Mac may give you a false sense of security.

You almost fell for a phishing attack soon after your computer was infected with a keylogger. That message was not from Amazon. This suggests that you're opening spam. Vigilance is just as important as security software.

Let me leave you with one final piece of advice. Hopefully it will help you stop any more problems before they occur.

There were seven years of messages in your e-mail account when it was hijacked. These messages may contain sensitive information. Review them. If they contain banking information, contact your financial institution. If they contain passwords to other sites, reset the passwords and check for suspicious activity. Do this as soon as possible.

Finally, I have links to free security software on my site. You'll even find programs that work on the Mac!

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