Gmail Phishing Email - Critical Alert For Your Account

For the record, this is an Gmail phishing email attempt that is recently going around and is first one to appear in my inbox for 2018, it did get caught in SPAM folder.

From: Service <fthmods@dingbro.com> Subject:  Critical alert for your account Sent : Jan 06, 2018 Your account is listed as the recovery email for yourname@gmail.com. Don't recognize this account? click here.  Sign-in attempt was blocked for your  account                                 yourname@gmail.com                                      Someone just used your password to try to sign in to your account. gmail.com blocked them, but you should check what happened.                                        CHECK ACTIVITY You received this email to let you know about important changes to your profile and services.© 2018 gmail.com.,1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA

SPAM LINKS -> http://2aw.co.kr/wp/recountsr.html

Here's how the phishing site looks, very bizarre. http://2aw.co.kr/wp/recountsr.html gets redirected to proactivity.su. 

How to tell this is a Phishing email ?

1. Check email address in full, if it's not from originating company then it's phishing.
2. Hover over all links in email, if it's not from the amazon.ca site then forget it.
   
   
3. The best way is to look at message source, see below.

How to examine Email Message Source ?

Now lets look at message source

1. Outlook.com->Actions->View Message Source. 
2. Gmail.com->More (down arrow to top right)->Show original.

Check for suspicious links, anything that does not originate from amazon.ca.

Report Phishing Email (not as Spam)

1. Outlook.com->Junk (at Top)->Phishing Scam
2. Gmail.com->More (downarrow to top right)->Report Phishing 

Report Phishing URLs at Google now 

If you have recievied this email take further action now by click these links

1. https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/

Report phishing at Microsoft and government agencies

1. http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/phishing-faq.aspx

Report phishing emails to Apple 

Forward the email to abuse@icloud.com. This provides Apple's legal department and law enforcement with useful information to help prevent future phishing emails.

1-Click Install for Windows Media Taskbar Mini-Player for Windows 10 and April 2018 Update (64-bit)

This is an update to Windows Media Mini-Player on Windows (64-bit) 10 and Creators Update 64-bit script.

Getting back Windows Media Mini-Player on Windows (64-bit) 10 and April 2018 Update Update, with a one click installer. Confirmed working on April 2018 Update.

Windows Media Player 12+ version was missing the one of the best features of older Windows Media Players (WMP) and that was the mini-player that appeared when you minimized it. 

The WMP Mini-Player allows you to access the media player right from the Taskbar or system tray area.

Moreover, it displays the currently playing album, artist and provides next song pop-ups. This was a innovative feature to Windows that shortsightedly got removed?  Well, this installer will get it back for you.

Features:

• Windows Media Player Mini-Player 
• 1 click install and and proper uninstall - no registry files required
• Installer works for Windows 7, 8, 8.1,10+ (64 bit only)
• new - Removes Windows Media Player option from Toolbar/Taskbar immediately

What does it install? 

The WMPTaskbarInstallerWin10.inf file is old style (Win95) installer file that installs task-bar Windows Media Mini-Player dll (wmpband.dll) for your computer. The source of the wmpband.dll comes from Windows 7.  

unadulterated file

Install Instructions

Prerequisites:  

You must set-up Windows Media Player first and played at least 1 audio file.
Your user account must be part Administrators group or you know Administrator password to install for this install to work.

1. Tip! Back-up your registry as a precaution.
2. Download zip and unzip into a directory
   
   Windows 7,8,8.1,10+ (64-bit) and unzip WMPTaskbarInstallerWin10.zip, 
   
   
   For (32-bit) version see original post.
   
   To check what version 32-bit or 64-bit of Windows you are running, run this in Command line (CMD.exe) windows;
   

   1	wmic os get osarchitecture

    
3. Right-click onWMPTaskbarInstallerWin10.inf and click Install
4. Click Yes to User Account Control pop-up.
   
5. Run Windows Media Player and minimize it.
6. Right-click on TaskBar, hover Toolbars and select Windows Media Player. 
   
   
   
   Make sure to Uncheck "Lock the taskbar".
   
   You may not see it appear at first, since explorer process (that contains taskbar process) has to be refreshed. You may try to select another toolbar like Links and activate it and deactivate it, repeat, repeat, repeat until Windows Media Payer shows up.
   
   If that does not work, you'll have to refresh the explorer process, see my post here on doing that.
7. When you select Windows Media Player toolbar the mini-player appears then you have voila, you have it working! Have fun.
   
   This installs mini-player dll (wmpband.dll)  64-bit version to C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpband.dll - 267.0 KB. 
   
   
   
   
8. Potential install issues, if this install fails try this.
   
   Before installing again, check if the "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service" service is Stopped. Type services.msc and find "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service", right-click and chhoose Stop.
   
   
9. Update June 06, 2018 - You have to reinstall this now with every named release  of Windows, like Fall Creators Update, Spring Creators Update, etc

Uninstall

The great thing about this WMPTaskbarInstallerWin10.inf, is it creates a uninstall option.

Goto Programs and Features, and double-click "Windows Media Player Taskbar mini-Player..." to uninstall.

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Windows 10 April 2018 Update Estimate/Duration/Total Time

• Windows 10 will notify you when the April 2018 Update is available for your device. But this update is not a normal update, it takes quite long. It caught me off guard.
  
  When the update is ready, you'll be asked to pick a time to install it. After it’s installed, your device will be running Windows 10, version 1803.
  
  Budget 4-5 hrs for this update and your PC will restart multiple times.
  
  To see which version of Windows 10 your device is currently running, select the Start  button, then select Settings  > System > About.
• If you want to install the update now, select the Start  button, then select Settings  > Update & security  > Windows Update. Select Check for updates. If updates are available, install them.

Open Windows 10 Update