Tech Talk / By Martha Knight

Some computer users are clinging to Windows XP with growing desperation because they are happy with it and want to keep it and their current hardware as long as possible.

For others, it isn’t so much a matter of cherishing XP as that they haven’t found another version of Windows they like, or think they would like.

Vista wasn’t exactly a runaway success, was it! Me, I have liked Vista Ultimate just fine, and there are other Vista products I don’t think were all that bad. I still have one system that merrily is running Vista, but the one I added to my collection most recently is on Windows 7.

I also have two systems running XP, but I know that OS, and thus those systems, will not be “supported” much longer. No more updates, patches or defenses against new attacks. It will be pretty tricky to upgrade those systems to current Windows Oss, too.

It is becoming harder to find new Windows systems with versions older than 8.1. We might as well face it, that’s what many of us will be using. But we may as well know what to look out for in 8.1, other than the plain fact of having to learn something different. It won’t be a terrible jolt, especially if we have used Windows 7.

Anyone with Windows 8 should have upgraded to 8.1. (For that matter, Windows 8.1 should have been what Microsoft shipped when it brought out Windows 8, but it’s too late for that.)

Some users are thrilled with the Smart Search feature. Others hate it with a passion.

Smart Search can be disabled, but if you leave it turned on, every time you do a search, maybe looking for something on your own system or a local network, Smart Search takes it upon itself to go to the net and do a Bing search on that string.

Not only that, Bing logs all those searches and attaches them to your profile, and associates them with your ID for its own archiving purposes.

Smart Search also markets to you, suggesting things you might be interested in doing or buying. But if you think you can live without such advice (hey, we get marketed to often enough just watching telly, checking our email or using a browser, right?), there don’t seem to be any good reasons to leave Smart Search turned on in 8.1. We can always go on searching in ignorance, but with at least some tattered remnants of privacy.

But how do you turn off Smart Search? Bring up the Settings charm (use the Windows key and tap C). Then choose Change PC Settings. Tap or click on the black arrow in the upper left. When you come to Search Apps, turn off the Use Bing to Search Online.

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A server based in the Netherlands that is part of the “Pony” botnet has been discovered to contain about 2 million passwords and logins, from Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, Google and other services.

Another entity victimized by the thieves was the human resources and payroll software company ADP.

The thugs were thought to be aiming to disrupt and raid online service accounts for useful data, but meddling in payroll and employment records can be financially disruptive to employers and employees and to finances generally.

To get a handle on the potential damage here, consider that ADP handles $1.4 trillion a year in this country, and is in charge of payrolls that include about 17 percent of our employed persons.

There were thousands of FTP, secure shell and remote access logins filched, and LinkedIn logins were raided.

But the major hauls came from Facebook (318,121 credentials), Yahoo (59,549) and Google (54,437). Two Russian social networking services were hit too.

Still a mystery is—precisely what sort of attacker got into the systems that were infected, and sent data to the enslaving server?

The server where the credentials were stored got the information from one IP address in the Netherlands.

The information was garnered from more than 100 countries.

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Looking for something else at a gear source I like, I stumbled across an accessory anyone with a compact digital camera or videocam would really appreciate. He or she probably doesn’t have one, since it is so new.

I refer to the Joby GPod Mini Magnetic tripod. It is something like the GorillaPod you must have seen, with its clever, bendable legs. The GPod Mini Magnetic is like that, but with magnets on the tips of the legs.

Think of all the places and situations where you would like to anchor a camera, while still being able to make adjustments, and reposition it when needed. File cabinets, sign poles, metal doors, metal carts, vehicles, railings—well, you get the idea.

This won’t work with DSLRs because they are too heavy. But it will work with most consumer and prosumer digicams and videocams.

Joby GPod Mini costs about $15. You could also add a GripTight mount ($20) to adapt it for holding a smart phone.