how you use these computer tips and you didn’t see them here.
The Super Alt-Tab Computer Tips
Your boss probably already knows that alt-tab lets you quickly switch from your Web browser (displaying Digg.com) to a more productive-looking application, so your boss may make a habit of glancing at your Windows taskbar whenever he’s standing behind your computer to see what you’re really up to.
But you can one-up your boss by installing a special application that completely hides certain windows when you press a particular key combination. No matter how hard your boss looks, he won’t find these hidden windows (unless he knows your secret key combination).
Warning: if you install an application like Hide Window Plus, you may get in more trouble than you would for just surfing the Internet. If you can see your boss coming, you may have more luck by pressing Alt-Home in your Web browser to view your boring default home page before pressing Alt-Tab to switch to an even more boring application.
Computer Tips To Get Around Blocked Sites
Tech savvy bosses and larger organizations will often block the major time-wasting Web sites. When you try to visit Reddit or Digg or Slashdot, the blocking software displays a “get back to work screen” or—worse—a message saying that your visit has been logged with your boss.
But most of these blocking tools use what computer security professionals call a blacklist—they only list the sites you can’t visit. You can still visit any site not on that list.
Getting around a blacklist on the modern Internet is easy. Just search for “free proxy.” These sites will download a copy of the Digg homepage and show it to you on their domain name—which probably isn’t blocked.
Be careful—if you login to a site through a free proxy, you share your login details with them. Never use them to login to your main email account or any financial account. This is just a precaution you need to take to protect your on line accounts.
Also be careful of crafty bosses or overstaffed IT departments. If they see you frequently visiting FreeProxy.example.com, they might get suspicious and see what you’re really doing. Again, the punishment for trying to cover up your actions might be worse than the punishment for those actions themselves.
Computer Tips To Avoid Leaving A Trail
Website blocking software can track your Web browser at the server level, so there’s little you can do to hide your actions. But if your boss or IT department haven’t bought a blocking system, they may be checking on you using the old fashioned way—looking at your Web browser history.
For years now, every major browser has included a way for you to wipe your browsing history. The problem with this method was that it wiped everything—so it was obvious you were trying to hide something.
But a new feature in Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome lets you hide just a specific session. Open your Web browser in privacy mode (see the File menu) and your browser won’t save anything you do on your disk drive (except files you download.)
See the screenshot below. In Google chrome simply click on the spanner, then New incognito window, and your set to browse in private.
There will be no trace on your computer of the sites you visited—but the rest of the legitimate Web browsing that you did will still be there so your boss doesn’t suspect anything.
Computer Tips To Really Hide Applications
Of course a savvy boss or diligent IT department will simply block you from installing new applications on your computer, so it doesn’t matter how well you hide them—or does it?
If you really need to hide an application and you have a computer at home, you may be able to install it on a USB device. Lots of applications today have what they call “portable” editions that install entirely to USB keychains and keep all of their data there.
If you use, for example, a portable game, you’ll be able to play it at work but never leave any trace on your work computer. There will be no program file, no data files, no Start Menu entry. Plus—even better—you’ll be able to play the same game at home too, picking up from where you left off.
I suggest you start with a portable Web browser and see how it works at work. You can always claim that you like the interface of the portable browser better than the browser at work if you get caught.
Computer Tips To Prevent Your Boss From Spying On You
Several offices have security cameras for security—and for monitoring employee productivity. But these days there’s a new less obvious way to spy on employees.
You’ve probably see screencasts here on Tips4PC, but the same software that lets us record videos of our desktops also lets bosses secretly record videos of your desktop.
Most of this software doesn’t save these videos. It just lets your boss tune in and spy on you whenever he wants. That could suck if you want to just relax on the Internet for a bit.
Luckily, you can easily defeat this software—you simply need to kill it. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and switch to the processes tab. One of these processes is the spy software—it’s usually called something like Remote Viewer. Highlight the software and press End Process.
The next time your boss tries to spy on your desktop, he’ll get a “cannot connect” error. If you kill this software everyday and he gets suspicious, just tell him that you thought it might have been a virus, and since terminating it didn’t harm your computer you thought it was ok.
If you do it right, this is the least likely of the computer tips to get you in trouble. (And just remember you didn’t find out any of this from me)
Yes we can see what you are doing, We will always see what you are doing. we can see what files you have open, if you are sharing your login whether you have been stupid enough to install unsolicited software You have an I.T. policy for a reason. Read it and weep. If You are inside a corporate network then all your base r belong to us.. You should really think about a career change if you want to get paid to play.
My boss watches me via remote access. Currently she’s logged in. I can tell because my usual background went back. Just to make sure, its still set to the photo but not displaying it. Is there anyway to hide or controls what she sees via remote access? Its the kind of access that allows her to move my mouse around.
These great tips will make me happier even when my employer block all the social networking sites. freeproxy.net is the best tips that i get into this post. Thanks a ton mitz for suggesting this awesome ideas.
These are really great ways that allow employees to still enjoy using their computers while they are working. As we all know, many companies are trying to block popular website in their office so that their employees won’t get distracted while they are at work. Unfortunately, this situation can sometimes cause big disappointment to employees. You’re absolutely right with your title, never ever let your boss know this lol Such a helpful post for employees out there!
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to block most if not all of your suggestions.
Many companies are switching to a mainframe or even cloud computing.
Also, a lot of companies physically disable or remove USB ports and similar to prevent employees from STEALING time or anything else. And YES, you ARE stealing if you are paid to do a job and are goofing off. Save the time wasting for when you are not at work. This includes not using the company computer for anything personal at any time, even at lunch.
What happened to work ethics? No wonder the country is so screwed up…
Oh, BTW, as long as an employer notifies you that all your computer usage is being monitored and recorded, there is little you can do about it except do your friggin job or find another job.
this is realy nice tricks my question is that can we use vpn service or vpn software at the place of proxy service to unblock a website.
Mitz-
As always great information. One quick question, is there any way to tell if your boss has tracking software on your computer?
thnks
sean
Wow, these are the great computer tips, I will try and hoping my boss don’t read this post.
I wish I had known these tips before! Now I work on my own, so it motivates me to work seriously, but I used to work in an agency and the 1.5 hours of work a day you mentioned are pretty flattering in my case…
Oh WOW! Yes it is easier if you work for yourself!
Great tips! It’s risky for applying those ones at work but, I don’t think the boss will even notice. The proxy is the easiest method of entering any website at all. Keep up the good work!
Yes most bosses are not tech savy..:)
True, most of them are not but the risks are also high, losing you job being the biggest risk
This tutorial was awesome. You just gave me a cool idea. I recently discovered the incognito mode on Google Chrome but it seems that my history is still detected on our servers. I don’t know how did that happened but my boss is kinda techy. Lucky me, we don’t have any software that records any stuffs while working.
Cool tips here! These will help some people go on with their procrastination online even during work hours
I know I am sorry to let these tips out!
You are my hero! Do you know how boring can be to stare at screen and see if somebody comes into the door? Sometimes it takes hours until someone comes into the building! And my boss blocked all important social networks!
LOL !!! You are bad!
By the way Mitz, I just want to ask if it is possible to put it at home for security?
So glad to be out of the every day work world of having someone looking over the shoulder. Self employment does have its benefits.
Hi,
Thanks for sharing this wonderful article. It helped me gain a lot of info.
See that is the advantage of work from home careers like blogging you do not have to deal with these headache’s.
You do when you outsource though.. I always have this problem but there are other tools for that too!
Thanks Mitz, these tips will help a lot when i get back to college as almost all social media sites are blocked at hostel.
Some good tips in this post. I can see the “hidden applications” tip being helpful if an IT department blogs certain tools on a work computer such as Remote desktop. In this case, you would be using this knowledge for good :).
Yes this knowledge can work both ways.
It happened to me. As i am observed by my boss, i am a little bit nervous and conscious.
Oh no! I hope the boss is not reading these tips..
Awesome, sneaky tips. I couldn’t help but grin as I read this post. I’m not a techie person and I really enjoyed what you have shared. There are just times that employees feel lazy or aren’t motivated to work and these tips are great ways to be stealthy if you’re not at your most productive moment.
Also if you are the boss reading this then you have a good advantage over your employees now.. LOL
Really enjoyed reading this, wish I knew some of these when I needed them in the past! Cool post.
Mitz, thanks for this post, I was just discussing yesterday how little I think the average office worker ends up doing per day! This article makes me think of the ‘boss screens’ games from my childhood sometimes had!
That’s a cool tip about using portable versions of things on usb, never thought of that!
Also really love the tip about killing software that spies on you and if you get caught to say you thought it was a virus, ha ha!
I know it is really bad.. I would much rather employ people to do manual tasks and stay away from the computer all together! Unfortunately even I wander off to look at stuff on the internet and I work for myself!