Fed up with how bloated AVG has become over the years since v7, it now seems to really slow down all my computers when installed. In search of a better anti-virus product I came across Microsoft Security Essentials at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
The slogan says “Proven antivirus protection for free? That’s what I need”. I’ll try it and see!
There’s also a true 64bit version available as well.
I came across another little Nasty Little B****** this evening which managed to self-install itself onto my production fully patched workstation, after visiting some official Panasonic websites! Windows Defender tells me “No unwated or unharmful software detected”. That was incorrect, something popped up called Vista Internet Security 2010, never heard of it, and it didn’t look like any Microsoft product, although it looked very good, and very Microsoft like, until it started scanning and detecting false positives, and then noticed a running 32-bit process called AV.EXE, I run a 64-bit clean system, so any weird 32 bit process, look very suspect. How a non-geek computer nerd would know, I’ve no idea. I don’t use Internet Explorer only Firefox 3.5, so I’ll be damned if I know how it jumped on-board!
Vista Internet Security 2010 (can be also called as Vista Internet Security) is a rogue anti-spyware program that simulates a system scan and reports false scan results just to scare you and make you think that your computer is infected with Trojans, worms and other malware. Once installed, it will display fake security alerts or notifications and then inform you that you need to pay money to register the program if you want to remove the infections and computer threats, which of course do not even exist. Do not pay for this software and get rid of Vista Internet Security 2010 form your computer upon detection using the removal stated guide below.
Vista Internet Security 2010 displays warnings and notifications about serious security threats and privacy issues. It will also state that it has detected many critical spyware objects and that these objects can expose private information. Of course, that’s not true. This is just a part of whole scam. Besides, no matter what you decide to do, it will ask to pay for a full version of the program to protect your computer from malware and possible attacks from the Internet. Just ignore all of this and read the the following instructions carefully.
You may need this file!
It very quickly removes registry keys so stops you executing files, so you’ll not be able to run your browsers, regedit etc, so you may need access to another computer to follow these steps
Vista Internet Security removal instructions:
1. Click Start->Run Type “cmd”. Press Enter or click OK.
2. Type “notepad” press Enter. Notepad will open.
3. Copy and past the following text into Notepad:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.exe\shell\open\command]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\secfile\shell\open\command]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe\shell\open\command]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe]
@=”exefile”
“Content Type”=”application/x-msdownload”
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\secfile]
4. Save file as “exefix.reg” (without quotation-marks) to your Desktop.
NOTE: choose Save as type: All files
5. Double-click to open exefix.reg. Click “Yes” for Registry Editor prompt window.
The above will then allow you to run your applications and anti-malware and anti-spyware checkers! See earlier blog for recommended software tools.
You’ve been warned!!!
USB over network
The above snapshot, shows the USB over Network server software running, and the current USB devices attached to the server, which can then be shared, just like any resource, disk, printer etc.
USB over network device shared waiting for connection
The device is shared, and is waiting for a client computer to connect to it.
USB device properties
You can give the devices meaningful friendly names, that you’ll remember. On the client computer (remote computer), install another copy of Active Home Pro, making sure the drivers are installed for the CM15Pro. Run the USB over Network client software.
USB over Network client setup
Select USB Device, Add, browser for the computer or enter IP address. You should see, a list of devices that can be connected to.
Client connecting...
Right click the device, and click connect, if this is the first time you’ve connected to the device, you’ll get the usual, bing-bong tones, and plug N play will start and register the drives.
Now you can use your ActiveHome Pro software on another wireless (WiFi) computer, just open the *.AHX home file, from a shared location.
Client Connected to device
I’ve come across a some nasty fakeware that infected my business laptop, so here’s some free advice to you. Fake ware is a software trojan that finds it’s way onto your computer from a website, and this particular software program pretends to be an anti-virus program called Anti Virus Live, and if you visit their website, you can purchase options to enable it! Umm!
I’m very careful with all my computers, especially my business laptops. I only went onto two websites the day in question when the computer was “infected”.
A program called “SYSGUARD.EXE”, or in my case “WDXHSYSGUARD.EXE” is hooked into the Run line in the computers registry. It then disables various options, like the Command Prompt, Task Manager, Internet Explorer, when you try to run these applications, it states they are infected, and do you want to Purchase Protection. Also false firewall attacks pop up on screen, and multiple browser windows appear.
The first thing to do, is shutdown, and start the computer in Safe Mode (f8) at boot prompt, and Select Safe Mode. Check the computers registry for anything odd, now this might be difficult, if you don’t know what you looking at, so why not have a look now, and check what’s normally there.
easy way:-
run Msconfig at the command prompt
System Configuration
If anything looks weird, google it!
(for geeks and nerds! see below)
and check what is there…
registry
I’m going to giveaway some of the Dark Arts’ I’ve learnt over the years….
Free tools I use:-
and don’t use the following tools much anymore, but always worth adding to the toolbox, if you are paranoid, I just find that Ad-aware has become very bloated!
The last three software products have been around for many years, but the “new kids on the block” seem to have the edge!
anyway, if you have any problems, you could always contact me!
Good Luck!!!
I’ve been a little pre-occupied with things, and needed to return to tagging my music cd and mp3 collection, which is a mamouth task, converting all the tags to ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1 and downloading all the album art, amongst other things going on in andysworld!
But these are the tools I use for free, Mp3tag v2.43 (http://www.mp3tag.de/en/) to tag the music collection correctly and it also downloads album art, and also Album Art Aggreagator v.1.4.6, batch album art downloader. The URL is broken for this, so use Google. I also use iTunes integration for playlist creation, but I’ve recently stopped using this, because my collection has grown, and it takes a while for iTunes to startup and shutdown.
Total Tracks: 10,991
Total Albums: 1,173
Total Artists: 1,316
Total Genres: 107
Total Playing Time: 789:36:50
and I’m only about a third through!
Windows 7 x64 edition
I’ve just taken some time out to download the 3GB download, and install this 64-bit Release Candidate to have a look.
I’m still a fan of Windows 2000 Professional, although a bit old these days, and have resisted the temptation to move/upgrade to Vista, apart from on my gaming rig because I needed DirectX 10 for the games.
Windows 7 x64 Edition Scene Theme
Quite a few other colourful themes as well. For oldies like me that like the “classic theme”, the Windows Classic Theme is still present! After 10 minutes of fiddling, here’s my desktop!
Windows 7 x64 Classic Theme
Would I upgrade, not at present. But Nice picture of a Male Siamese Fighter though!
Windows Vista updated itself today with a CSR Bluetooth update, and my bluetooth stopped working between my computer and phone. I used the rollback feature to rollback the driver to the original driver shipped with the operating system dated sometime in August 2006, Bluetooth started working again! So it just goes to show, sometimes newer updates are not better!
So “IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT”
I’ve seen the BBC have replaced BBC iPlayer Download Manager with BBC iPlayer Desktop which uses Adobe AIR and Flex technologies which will make use of Flash Media Rights Management Server (FMRMS) to DRM-protect content which is downloaded to the user’s desktop. I wonder if they’ve changed this because they were fed-up of people stripping out the DRM with Windows tools. I suppose Mac and Linux users will now be happy, that BBC iPlayer content is available to them, and folks that never liked the peer-to-peer Kontiki software can be removed - I think Sky and Channel 4 4oD service still need this technology.
The BBC still allow you to download Windows Media Player content at present, with DRM! (direct download from website only - not peer to peer)
Well, I’ve used the repair option on a Windows XP Professional cdrom slipstreamed with Service Pack 2, and then re-applied Service Pack 3, and the networking issues is still present!
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 didn’t fix my operating system fault issue. Still scratching head…
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