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Computer Help Thread

Admin

Administrator. Graeme
Staff member
Computer Help Thread

This has some basic programs to help you solve computer problems.



Reading Material



================================================== ===================


Emergency Tools

Use these tools in an emergency situation where you have a virus or
spyware installed and cannot remove it by normal means.

  • Merjin's Tools Download HiJackThis and other tools you may
    need to diagnose any problematic programs you have running in the
    background. See this tutorial on analyzing a HiJackThis log.
  • Ultimate
    Boot CD for Windows
    or Ultimate Boot CD
    Provides a functional boot up CD with many tools and features to
    correct problems if you can't get on your system. There are slight
    differences between the two and I'm not sure if they are one in
    the same or include different tools. I have only used the 2nd one.
  • Bootdisk.com
    provides emergency boot disks for almost any occasion


================================================== ===================

Free Anti-Virus solutions

All have a paid versions which offer more functionality. Only run one
anti-virus software on your computer, more than one can cause a conflict,
and do more harm than good. In other words: If you already have AV software
installed, don't install one of these unless you intend on uninstalling
your current AV first.



================================================== ===================

Software Firewalls

All have a paid versions which offer more functionality
Only run one software firewall on your computer if needed
This includes the one built into WindowsXP, Windows Server 2003 SP1




================================================== ====================

Free Cleaning utilities

Automatically cleanup your temp folders, and other added features---Please
read the instructions before using



================================================== ====================

Free Online Malware scanners (Virus, Trojans, Worms)


Ensure you set to Autoclean when possible. Safe to run, even if you
have Anti-Virus software installed. Most of these require IE to run.



================================================

Downloadable Spyware and Malware Scanner


These do not replace Anti-Virus software

  • AVG
    Anti-Spyware 7.5 (previously Ewido Anti-Malware)
  • A-squared
    Free by Emsisoft
    Malware scanner, compliments your AV
  • Prevx
    Malware Removal
    Free Trial - Removes most malware
    • Ad-Aware
      2007 Free
      It does have a paid version that offers other functions...
    • Spybot Search & Destroy 1.4 Includes many useful
      tools and functions
    • Microsoft Windows Defender (Beta) - Requires WGA
      authentication
      Includes Realtime protection
    • CWS Shredder Removes the infamous CoolWebSearch bugs
    • Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool Removes a
      limited number of software and requires WGA authentication
    • Malware
      Killer 0.90
      Includes Spywareblaster, Adaware, Spybot S&D, NOD32
      Anti-Virus Standalone, and removal tools for cleaning IE temp files -
      good for emergencies

      Prevent Spyware from ever being Installed with these tools
    • SpywareBlaster by JavaCool - HIGHLY Recommended

      *Will block bad ActiveX
      *Block malicious cookies in IE and Firefox
      *Restrict actions of potentially dangerous sites in IE & Firefox
      *Does not have to be left running as a background process. Just update
      it every couple weeks and close.
    • SpywareGuard 2.2 by JavaCool (Slightly Outdated)
      provides a real-time protection solution against spyware that is a great
      addition to SpywareBlaster
    • Script Sentry Prevents potentially malicious files
      from being executed by prompting you before they run (these include,
      .VBS, .JS, .SHS, and more)
    • IE-Spyad Puts over 5000 sites in your restricted
      zone so you'll be protected when you visit innocent-looking sites that
      aren't actually innocent at all. You don't need this if you use
      Spywareblaster & the Hosts file included with Spybot.
    • BlueTack Hosts Manager
      & Lists
      highly maintained hosts
      file
      to load into Windows to prevent certain sites to be accessed

    ================================================== ====================

    Registry Cleaners

    Registry Cleaners are useful for removing old and obsolete entries from
    your system's registry. However, you should be careful with these tools
    and always make a restore point and backup your registry before
    cleaning it, as sometimes these tools can remove more than you want them
    too. CCleaner has a very good built in registry cleaner in it also.
    • RegSeeker One of the best and most popular tools.
      Has an autoclean or manual cleaning function. See this article for a short
      overview of how to use the program.
    • RegCleaner
      4.3
      This is the last free version of RegCleaner made by the author
      of jv16 powertools. RegCleaner still works fine on it's own on XP,
      although I'm not sure about Vista.
    • WinASO RegDefrag I
      have no experience with this program, but it has a good rating by Cnet.
      It claims to run a defragmentation procedure on your registry.
    • PageDefrag This isn't a registry tool per say, it
      defrags your page file, which can become overloaded and needs to be run
      every so often.
    • Axcel216
      Registry Guide
      An overview of Windows registry tips, tweaks, and
      cleaning methods. See more documentation below in the Microsoft Support
      Articles.



=================================================

Root-Kit Removal Tools

Rootkits are a newer type of software threat that can be installed into
Windows without your knowledge. They are hard to detect and remove,
and it is hard to determine whether or not you may possibly have a rootkit
installed. Some rootkits are used legitimately by software vendors,
and some are malicious. Learn more about rootkit's on Steve Gibson's
Security Now,
Cnet, and Wikipedia.




Multimedia Software

Many times you will find that you need a certain codec to play a
video or audio file. Below are some players and codec packs that make
this process very simple.


  • VideoLAN
    VLC Player
    Will play most all types of media, DVDs, CDs, and
    any media file types. All codecs are integrated.
  • ffdshow codec
    - Includes codecs required to encode and decode most all popular
    audio and video formats
  • DivX -
    The DivX Codec has a free and paid version. It will play most media
    types (including Xvid and DivX encoded movies, which are the most
    popular encoding forms). It includes a player, the codec, a web
    player, a file converter and more.
  • Final Builds - Includes the K-Lite Codec Pack, which has codecs
    or almost all known media types, and includes many players for all
    types of formats. Also has Quicktime and Real Player alternatives
    which are less bulky than the official players, and many other good
    software.
  • Winamp -
    Formally just an MP3 player, Winamp will play most audio and video
    types, and has built in streaming radio stations, including a free
    broadcast of XM Satellite Radio
 
Any programs that are missing ? Feel free to add try to keep the programs freeware
 
Excellent list there Admin,
I could have done with it a week ago. My laptop crashed, I had the Blue Screen of Death.
Got it sorted now, had restore factory settings. So I lost all the files, most had been backed up to disks. There are a few I'd like to recover, do you know of a retrevial program that you can add to the list?
I have one but it's not any good, the retrevied files are not in english, just symbols, so I don't know whats what:mad:

And I cant download the frigging internet software, so its running XP home that needs updates:eek:

Thanks,
Mike
 
Anti-Virus: For protecting against virii.

avast! AntiVirus - Home version is free when you register. Great protection, easy to use.

AVG - Or "Antivirus Gold". It's a free antivirus that operates much in the same way that Norton does. Provides email protection, system protection, and other little goodies like update and scan scheduling. The new version occasionally makes you download a new one once your "trial" runs out, but even that is automated.

TrendMicro Housecall - Don't want to install anything? Just want to do a quick virus scan? TrendMicro provides this service to better protect the world. Works great, but of course, requires an internet connection.


Anti-Malware: For protecting against adware, spyware, and their brethren.

Ad-Aware - Anti-spyware program. Get rid of those malicious pop-ups.

Spy-bot - Another anti-spyware, use in tandem with Ad-Aware. Also can "immunize" your system to prevent future attacks by certain malware.

SpywareBlaster 3.3 - This anti-spyware utility prevents the installation of a lot of damaging ActiveX components in IE (and IE based browsers) and adds harmful sites to the Restricted Sites list in IE. It also features tracking cookie blocking in IE and Mozilla/Firefox. After installing this, Ad-Aware and Spybot don't have much to find and remove anymore.

Hijack This - A registry scanner that lets you easily remove offending registry entries (usually caused by spyware or the programs that funnel them into your system). You really have to know your shit on this one, though. Don't just go in there and delete everything the program finds, or you'll **** up your system.


Image and Document Creation: For the development and manipulation of text and images.

OpenOffice.org - Office suite for word processing, slideshow presentations, spreadsheets, and basic illustrations (drawing). Works with MS Office and Corel WordPerfect documents.

PDFCreator - Does the same kind of thing Acrobat Distiller does but it's free. It creates a printer in Windows that allows you to print your documents to PDF files. Seems to work pretty well from what I've seen.

Inkscape - Vector graphics program like Illustrator. Works well with the Gimp for doing graphics on the cheap.

Programers Notepad - Free notepad replacement that I'm fond of.

GIMP - Image editor akin to Adobe Photoshop and Jasc Paint Shop Pro.

GIMPShop for Windows - GIMPShop for Windows changes the skin of GIMP to look more like Photoshop, easing the use of the program while still being free. Versions available for Mac and Linux floating around as well at the official site.

Expression 3 - A good, free vector illustration program from Microsoft? Oh yes. (Mac and Windows)

FRAPS - Good for making gif's, and taking in-game movies. Also useful for benchmarking your computer.

602 Office - Another office suite.

Paint.Net - Pretty decent and free. Requires .Net Runtime libraries.


Internet Utilities: Browsers, plug-ins, and other bits for one-to-many communications.

FireFox Browser - Web browser with built-in pop-up blocking and other great add-ons. Very clutter-free and easy to use. Seems to be much more stable than MS Internet Explorer (where random freezes and other issues are the norm).

Opera Web Browser - An alternative browser to the aforementioned Firefox. I prefer Opera mainly because of it's simple organization. If you tend to have various different applications on while browsing the web, this browser keeps a tab of all active pages within the web browser, which will keep your taskbar clutter free. As far as plug-ins and such, you may have to read up on those. Opera is a simple, tidy browser that I would recommend to anyone.

Maxthon - One of the better IE based browsers out there. It has a lot of great plugins and skins, and also uses tabs for browsing. The two downsides are that since it's based on IE you're screwed if your security settings aren't high enough, and that it has so many options that it may be a little confusing for some people. You may prefer this to Firefox, although either one is better than regular IE.

Thunderbird - E-mail client. Very easy to use if you are familiar with MS Outlook or Qualcomm's Eudora.

Limewire - Today's best P2P program where you can find anything.

Web Developer Extension - If you do any web design this is a very handy tool. Allows you to edit CSS on live pages without changing the files. It can also outline table cells or block elements. And it allows you to easily validate your pages.

Tabbrowser Extension - Lots of cool features. You can drag tabs around, if you have more tabs open then can fit on the screen it allows you to scroll back and forth, shows a status bar next to tabs when loading, allows you to open bookmarks in background tabs, allows you to save your current tab session for reopening later and lots of other stuff. It can be slightly buggy but it's gotten to the point where not having it installed annoys me.

Filezilla - Great FTP program.

Putty - Very nice ssh/telnet program for Windows.


Communications: Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) in its varied flavors, one-to-one communications, and the like.

Teamspeak - A good voice communication system for gamers or people to cheap to pay for phone bills.

Skype - VoIP agent to replace telephones.

XFIRE - Excellent for in-game text communication and game joining at the click of a button.

Trillian - Regardless if you chat on AIM, ICQ, MSN, or ancient IRC... this program acts as a client for all of them and does a damn fine job.

gaim - Excellent instant messenger program, available for Linux and Windows. Supports all the most popular protocols.


Miscellaneous Utilities: The assorted odds and ends, generally increasing functionality if not productivity.

Konfabulator - Does what the new MAC OS X is doing with widgets. A utility that can do 'just about anything', from local train time listings, cancellations and delays to 'to do' lists, to the current world population, all intergrated seamlessly with your desktop. Eats away at memory though. It claims to be evaluation period only but the message has started coming up for me recently and it seems to be an empty threat as with WinZip and Rar.

FilZip - Which is genuine freeware. Also supports more archive formats than WinZip and behaves almost exectly like it.

Registry Mechanic - Used to fix random blue screen errors and lag problems, likely via the Windows registry. As easy to use as Ad Aware.

IsoBuster - Very useful data recovery tool. Can recover lost files from damaged CD's and DVD's. Also a must have for compiling and extracting .iso files. Many downloads are compressed in this form, and this is the only program I know of that's able to do it.

Iso-recorder - A windowsXP powertool. Used when I had Windows; worked well.

DVD Decrypter - No fuss DVD ripping for backup purposes. Converts file into a pure ISO image.

PC PitStop - This online utility is perfect for tuning up your PC. After a brief system test, various tips and solutions will be listed to optimize each subsystem. It will pick up anything from low internet ping to a needed defragment. Great online application.

7-zip - Another free compression program. Can create 7z files which seem to run smaller then zips and can create self extracting executable (SFX) files.

Ethereal - Protocol analyzer/Packet Sniffer. Great for troubleshooting network problems. Allows you to capture all network traffic for however long you want. Run this on your network to see just how insecure email is.

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP - Additional programs that developers work on after a product has been released to manufacturing. They add fun and functionality to the Windows experience.

Strokeit - A universal mouse gesture program with a 176k footprint, and is the greatest laziness enhancer in existence. A simple flick of the mouse in whatever movement you set will open new broswer windows, change tracks on your playlist, navigate backwards and forwards, and anything else under the sun you want it to do. There is no reason to not have this program.

ObjectDock - A very cool little program that puts a Mac-style magnifying toolbar on your desktop. You can set it to auto-hide, and have a whole row of icons in the toolbar when you mouse-over. It's great for un-cluttering your desktop (it's kind of hard to describe... give it a try). The regular version is one simple dock, and it's freeware.

Truecrypt - Free open source windows file encryption. Can encrypt an entire partition or create a virtual encrypted disk within a file. A virtual encrypted disk lives in a file on your hard disk which you mount through the program. When mounted it acts like any other partition in Windows. After you finish filling it with top secret files / porno you dismount it.

Winpatrol - Free version lets you retain Hitler-like control of all startup program, system, and other similar changes that any programs you run may make. Gives you simple "approve or deny" choice for any suspect activities of anything you run.

GetDataBack Data Recovery for NTFS - GetDataBack is highly advanced data-recovery software that will help you to get your data back when your drive's partition table, boot record, Master File Table, or root directory is corrupted or lost, when a virus hits the drive, when files have been deleted, when the drive has been formatted, or when the drive has been struck by a power failure.

BCwipe - Data wiping software; because deletion should be forever.


Websites/Online Utilities: Products found on, or tied closely to, specific websites.

ImageShack - Currently a popular choice for image hosting.

OurMedia - Online media hosting for most manner of media.

Photobucket - Similar to Imageshack. I started using Photobucket when Imageshack wasn't working. As long as you aren't hosting anything above 250K it's fine.

RealVNC - Ever used PCAnywhere? Ever needed to log on to someone elses computer and help them with something, regardless of OS? Use this. It's awesome. I can't seem to find the Mac version on there anymore (a friend demonstrated it by controlling his Mac with my PC), but most other OSes are covered in the free version.

LogMeIn - If you have multiple computers or just an always on connection. This program allows you to use pcanywhere type control for free. Using nothing but an internet connection.

Google Desktop Search - Indexes your entire hard drive when you're not using your computer, and lets you instantly do a Google search on your own files through your browser or a deskbar. Apparently next-gen operating systems will have something similar, but this beats Windows' built-in Find feature by a mile.

Google Deskbar - Puts a little Google search window directly in your windows taskbar. When you type in a search, it opens Google in a little, resizable mini-browser. It's nothing revolutionary, but it's incredibly handy if you use Google as your calculator or dictionary, and is also useful if you want to do a quick GIS image search

TightVNC and UltraVNC - Totally free VNC programs with slightly cooler feature sets then RealVNC. Both have available video drivers to improve performance. Great if you have multiple computers you need to control.

The Code Project - Website for coding resources. This has been my saviour many, many times. There is a very large and constantly updated C# programming section. They have hundreds of controls and techniques. Definately worth a visit for any programmer.

Major Geeks - A great freeware site.


Photo Utilities: Keeping track of your pictures and images.

IrfanView - A simple, easy to use picture viewer. Has the ability to cut, crop, and resize while keeping a sharp picture. Many accessible effects, such as sharpen and blur. Easily capture a specific frame from a .gif file. Also, if you like to convert pictures to greyscale, it's done with a simple click. Same thing with colour depth editing. Simple and easy to use. Also supports Photoshop Filters.

Graphic Converter - Like IrfanView only for Macs

Picasa - Made by Google for photo organizing and simple editing. It's a slick, beautiful little program with the easiest red-eye reduction around. Also it automatically saves backups of any photo you edit, so you can come back years later and undo your changes.


Video Stuff: For dabbling in those fancy moving picture shows.

Virtual Dub - Good for editing and encoding videos.

AviSynth - Powerful frame server for futzing around with videos. You create text files that use a scripting language to launch and modify videos. Then you open these text files much like you'd open any other video file.

DScaler - A badass little tool for capturing live video from any, and I mean any, video input devices you have. I use it to hook my XBox up to my computer through a Radeon 9600, and it works like a charm.

VLC - For viewing video files. I have only ever had a few files that don't work in this.

K-Lite Codec Pack - An excellent codec pack I have been using for about a year now. My codec issues have simply disappeared since installing this. It includes (or used to, when I last downloaded it) the excellent Media Player Classic, which is an open source extension of the original Windows Media Player.

AVI Codec - It's not a codec pack, but any file that you're having trouble opening, you can run the media through this program and it will specify a location to download that specific codec.

Avi-Chop - A simple way of splitting .avis by file size.

Gspot - A utility for getting details on the video file you're trying to get to run or edit, including codec and frame rate information.

DIKO - "DIKO is a one click DVD/DivX to KDVD/KSVCD conversion tool. It works with many other softwares to achieve the best quality and efficiency possible. " Avisynth, mentioned already, is one of the "many other softwares" included in the installation. Includes a free DIVX-->MPG encoder, FreeEnc. I use this package when I need to convert frame rates as part of the DVD encoding.

VSO DIVXtoDVD - Another one click DIVX to DVD package, I use this software when a frame rates don't need to be converted. For some reason the frame rate conversion method used by DIVXtoDVD would cause burned DVDs to pause in my particular player, although I could find no evidence of other people having issues. It also has its own built-in DIVX-->MPG encoder

DVDShrink - An awesome utility for removing unwanted portions of a DVD you are backing up in order to fit it on a DVD-R. Also will compress video to get it onto a DVDR. Also will allow you to reauthor an already created DVD. Highly recommended.

Real Alternative - Lets you watch RealMedia files without having to install any bloated software from Real Networks. Also includes Media Player Classic, a nice simple video player.


Development: Tools for coding and testing.

Visual Studio Whidbey - Express packs are free for the beta and expected to remain that way for release. Good way to aquaint oneself with the awesomely amazing Visual C#. Or if you want o make web apps, there's a Visual Web Developer beta available.

Notepad++ - Another great source code editor, with highlighting for different languages and whatnot.

Bloodshed Dev-C++ - A nice free C/C++ IDE for Windows.

Cygwin - Appears to be a recommended utility allowing Unix functionality in a Windows environment.

#develop - A fully featured C# and VB.Net (not ASP.Net) development environment. #develop includes a gui form editor, autocomplete (intellisense) documentation tools, and uses either the MS.Net compiler or MONO. Note: the VB.Net development side of this is a little leaky. You will find it will bomb out every now and again with memory issues. I recommend you use this for C# development only (which hasn't stopped me developing a VB.Net app using it, I just won't ever be doing it again - or writing any form of VB code for that matter)

.Net Framework SDK - The Microsoft .Net 1.1 Framework Software Developers Kit. The download is a little over 100MB, but it contains everything you need to build .Net apps and also contains the full set of MSDN .Net 1.1 help files which you cannot live without.

Lutz Roeder's Resourcer - A free tool that allows you to build .Net resx or resources files to contain your icons, images and other resources. Also check out Reflector and Commandbar.Net.

MySql - An open source database engine. MySql provides a solid database with excellent performance, and most of the features that larger proprietary vendors provide. Be sure to download the MyODBC connector and the MySql Administrator and MySql Query Browser tools.

InnoSetup - A setup builder. Along with ISTool (follow the links on the same site) is one of the slickest setup program builders I have seen.

LiquidIcon - A free icon and cursor editor. Not brilliant, but free. It handles icons of the normal sizes (16x16, 32x32 and 48x48) and can handle from 8bit to true color icons (without alpha channel). I've been using this for a long time, and I'm sure there is a better icon editor out there by now. I just couldn't be arsed to find it.


Audio Utilities: For keeping your audio ripped, digital, sorted, and available in multiple formats.

Winamp - In my opinion, the best free audio-media player out there. It will also play movies, but I just use mine to play mp3's. Good equalizer, good playback, great ability to make playlists.

Winamp 2.x - Earlier version than the one above. Not as pretty, but incredibly efficient at what it does. Runs better on older computers.

iTunes - For music playing.

Foobar2000 - I've tried lots of music players and this is the best one I've found. Great for large playlists. You can select Kernel Streaming for output so the Windows mixer doesn't muck up your audio. Not the prettiest but it just works really well.

CDex - Truly free (not share/crippleware) CD ripping software that offers more options than some pay rippers out there. Very robust, recognizes CD tracks amongst data, haven't found a disc it can't rip.

EAC - Very nice CD ripping program

CDBurnerXP Pro - A great CD/DVD burning program. A full list of features is located here. I also feel it's worth noting that it is the most downloaded and one of the highest ranked CD/DVD burning programs on the file download site MajorGeeks.com

Burnatonce - Another pretty good CD burning software. Kind of plain-Jane but it works well.

Audacity - An open-source audio editing tool, including the ability to work with mp3s.

MP3 directcut - A super-handy utility for quickly splitting and joining mp3s.


Games: Duh.

Orbiter - An amazingly accurate, free spaceflight simulator. It's full of all sorts of nerdy goodness.

GunBound - Free WORMS-style game. I've not messed with it in a couple of months but last I checked, despite the language oddities and the strange main site, it's pretty solid and playable.

Cave Story - An excellent 2-D platform game.

Madness Redeemer - I've already made a thread for this, but this is one awsome game. Go check the other thread for details n' such. And for you Mac'rs out thar

Wazzal - Can't live without if you like the Solar System or pirates. Almost professional looking, but very short if you only play to beat it.

Arena - You know Morrowind? The Elder Scrolls III? Well this is The Elder Scrolls I, the game Bethesda made in 1994 which was the same thing, only not as flashy. You'll need DosBox to run it though. They started letting people download it for free as part of their 10th anniversary thing, and if you really like old school games they you simply must have this.

Maple Story - It's a free MMORPG that is also a 2-D side-scroller. Has a feel that harkens back to the 16-bit days. Incredible production despite being a free online game with no server fees.

Celestia - It's an opensource astronomy program where you can travel around the universe and look at different things, ranging from planets to galaxies to MIR. It can highlight the constellations for you, and can even search for an eclipse for you to watch anytime in the past or future.

Celestia Motherlode - A few gigs of addons for Celestia, from better looking models to galaxies and nebulas.

Dosbox - Finally a chance to play something ugly and repetitive.

Dosbox Plug-In - An easier to use plug in for the above.

ScummVM - If you've got any of those old LucasArts games, it works a lot better for them than DosBox does.
 
don't know of any freeware programs that will do it , what file system you using fat32 or ntfs ?
depending on how much software you have installed and stuff you have downloaded since the crash you may be able to recover some files that haven't been overwritten yet

for ntfs NTFS Data Recovery Software. Recover NTFS Files - Recover Deleted Data

Fat32 or ntfs? Not sure, I just restored factory settings and have only tried to install the internet software. So I hope I haven't overwritten any the files I want to recover.

I'll try your link tonight or tomorrow,

thanks,

Mike.
 
Dam!

Add malwarebytes antimalwayre to the malware list program rocks also ccleaner, cant leave home without them

cough
demonoid

cough
 
Last edited:
Having trouble with
Spyware, Adware, Malware?[/b]

Some Symptoms:
Computer
running slower than normal & takes longer to boot up and shut down.

Messages
from your firewall that an unfamiliar program is trying to access the
internet, or a familar program trying to access the internet much more
than usual (assuming you have a firewall).

Unfamiliar processes
in your Windows Task Manager (the window that comes up when you hit
Ctrl+Alt+Del)

An increase in pop-up ads or ads that pop up on
sites that you're fairly sure don't have them.  Check the corners
of the popup windows, if a common logo or name appears, then,
congratulations! You have one of the more common types of adware.


Treatment

This
may not work in all situations, but does in most, so try this first.


Step
1: Install Spybot, Ad-Aware, and an antivirus program.


Download
and install the following programs:

Ad-Aware
- Anti-spyware program. Get rid of those malicious pop-ups.

Spy-bot
- Another anti-spyware, use in tandem with Ad-Aware. Can also "immunize" your
system to prevent future attacks by certain malware.

Check for updates in both programs before
continuing.



Step 2: Update
Windows


If you are using Windows, get the newest security
updates which can be found AT THIS PAGE These will help prevent you
from being reinfected after you get rid of the spyware.

Step
3: Disconnect from the Internet


A fresh install of Windows
XP, when first put online, can be infected within 3 minutes.  If
you don't disconnect from the internet while you're removing adware and
spyware, there are no guarantees that everything will be removed. 
Unplug any cables, or, in the case of wireless, disable your wireless
connection in the Network Connections section of the Control Panel.

Step
4: Turn off System Restore


Look below for a detailed
explanation on how to do this. System restore can be the bane of your
existance if you don't turn this off first.  A virus or spyware
program can take over system restore (and usually does) and restores the
virus or spyware in question after you've removed it.

Step 5:
Booting into safemode


Restart your computer and tap
F8 during the bootup process.  Select "Safe Mode" from the list of
boot options.

Step 6: Run Ad-Aware and Spybot

Run Ad-Aware
in a full system scan and fix anything it finds.

Run Spybot
and fix anything it finds (and choose to immunize while you're at it).

While you're in safe mode, run your antivirus software of choice (no one said
this would be quick).  After everything has been run, restart your computer. 
That will have fixed the majority of spyware/adware infections.
 
How do I Turn Off Windows System Restore?

Click Start -> Control Panel. Double click on the System icon (or, if you're using the Category View where it asks you to Pick a Category, choose Performance and Maintenance, then System.

In the window that comes up, click the System Restore tab. Check the box that says Turn off System Restore on all drives. Click OK.
 
How do I edit the Windows Registry?

First of all, you shouldn't do this unless you've exhausted all other options (Spybot, Ad-aware, antivirus, asking for help here, etc.). Messing with your registry can **** your computer up beyond repair (unless you've got a backup, and even then success is not guaranteed).

Second, this is a Windows XP-based guide. If you're trying to edit the registry in another version of Windows you may need to look elsewhere for help.

Also, it's highly recommended that if you're going to edit the registry, particularly if you're trying to squelch a bit of spyware or a trojan horse, to do so from safe mode. To boot into safe mode, press the F8 key while your computer is booting up (before you see the Windows load screen).

To edit the registry, you're going to use a program called RegEdit. It's built right into Windows and you can run it by clicking Start, Run and then typing regedit into the box and clicking OK.

A note about backing up your registry: Use the File -> Export option to save a backup of your registry to a safe location (i.e. a different hard drive, flash drive, etc.) before you change anything. Make sure you choose the "All" option to back up the entire registry.

On the left, you'll see a list of folders. These are the registry keys. Registry keys are similar to the folders you're used to in Windows. In addition to having values, each key can contain subkeys, just like a folder can contain a subfolder.

On the right hand pane, you'll see the actual values. Think of these like the files within your folders in Windows. These are the actual bits of information that tell your computer what to do when a key is referenced.

If you're looking for a specific registry key or value, use the find (ctrl-F) function. If the first result that comes up is not the key or value you're looking for, press F3 to jump to the next result.

Don't delete keys. This is a general rule. Most of the time, you'll be deleting values from within keys. Deleting entire keys, unless instructed to by the guide you're reading, is never recommended. To use a regular Windows analogy, if you want to delete an MP3 file, you don't delete the folder the file is in, right? You delete the file itself.

Also, again, since it bears repeating: don't **** with the registry unless you're absolutely sure it's necessary and you trust the guide you're reading. Situations in which it may be necessary: removing a trojan, browser hijack object, or a particularly pesky virus. If you don't believe that editing the registry is necessary for solving your problem, or you aren't sure that a guide you're reading is trustworthy, check out some more answers on Google, or start a thread here.
 
Alternate ways to boot Windows (AKA: How do I boot into Safe Mode?)

Press F8 while your computer is booting up, before you see the Windows loading screen. Just bash the hell out of that key. You'll get a white text on black background menu, from which you can make several choices. Useful ones include:

Safe Mode - Starts Windows with the fewest amount of drivers necessary. Probably the most used.

Safe Mode with Networking -Pick this one if you need to get online while troubleshooting your problem and you don't have another computer with net access. Useful for upgrading or updating a program that is causing problems.

Safe Mode with Command Prompt - Gives you access to a command line (DOS prompt).

Enable VGA Mode - Loads a default video driver on boot. Useful if your video card drivers become corrupted and you are unable to see things or things look ****ed up when you boot into regular Windows.

Enable Boot Logging - Will write a log of every driver and device loaded as the computer boots up to a text file (Ntbtlog.txt) file on the root (C:) directory. Useful if the computer won't boot, because the log file cuts off as soon as the computer restarts (identifying the last loaded driver as the problem). Will only log the most recent boot up, and it won't log anything if you select "Last known good configuration". If you reboot, re-enable boot logging, and boot again, the Ntbtlog file will be overwritten with the new log.

Last Known Good Configuration - Loads your last known good configuration. If you select this and your computer won't boot, something is probably wrong.

Disable automatic restart on system failure (Vista only): This is a particularly useful option to toggle, as it will keep your computer from automatically rebooting if Vista happens to blue screen.
 
How do I control what programs start when Windows boots?

Often times, programs get installed on your computer that decide without telling you that they're going to boot with Windows (Winamp, Yahoo Messenger, whatever). Other times, you would just prefer that stuff like your printer's monitoring software doesn't load when your computer boots. Depending on how long it's been since you cleaned house, the amount of programs that load on startup can slow your boot process to what seems like a halt. One of the best ways to deal with these programs is to tell them to knock it the **** off, and there are several ways to do this.

1.) The first and best way is to open the program in question and search through its options to find any checkboxes or options that say "Start with Windows", "Start on Boot", "Boot with Windows" or anything like that, and uncheck or deselect those options. Likewise, if you'd like something to boot with Windows, finding this option and enabling it is the best way to make it do so.

2.) The second is to remove the program from the Windows Startup folder.

In XP, there are multiple Startup folders (one for each Username, and a global one for All Users) They can be found at:

C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

In Vista, there are also mutliple folders:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (hidden by default)
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Simply delete the shortcut to the program you want to keep from booting with Windows.

Note that you can also add programs to this list if you want them to start with Windows but they don't have an option to do so (just drag a shortcut into the Startup folder). Keep in mind, however, that placing a program in the Startup folder in the All Users directory will cause that program to load on startup for all users on the computer. Unless everyone on the computer needs that program to load when they sign in, put it in the folder for your profile.

3.) The third tool is msconfig. Use this only if you're having problems figuring out how to disable a program from starting with Windows using the methods above.

Start -> Run -> msconfig. This opens the System Configuration Utility, which gives you all sorts of options for Startup. To keep a program from booting on Startup, navigate to the Startup tab and uncheck the box next to the program you wish to remove from the Startup process. Note that you can sometimes find malicious services (spyware, adware, etc.) in this list and disable them from loading with Windows. This is sometimes necessary to remove particularly pesky programs. If you'd like to optimize your Startup speed, you can find lists online of what is safe to disable and what is not.

Note that if you make changes using msconfig, you will get a pop up message the next time you start Windows saying "You have use the System Configuration Utility to make changes to the way Windows starts, yadda yadda yadda". If you truly did make a change and would care to not be reminded of that fact every time you start your computer there is a check box to disable the notification.

4.) The most powerful tool known to man for disabling things on Startup is AutoRuns. This is basically msconfig on crack. This lists everything in the Startup folder, Run, RunOnce, Registry keys, and can even be configured to show any toolbars, shell extensions, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, services, basically everything that starts with your computer. Worth looking at if none of the steps above solves your problem.
 
What is the BSOD, why am I getting it, and why does it disappear so fast?

The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) is an error screen that is shown when your Windows operating system commits a fatal, nonrecoverable error.

It looks like this:

windowsxpbsod.png


You're probably getting it for one of two reasons: you just installed something and the driver is causing problems, or something is wrong with a vital piece of hardware in your computer (power supply, faulty memory, overheating, etc.). There are many many reasons you could be getting a blue screen, though.

Blue screen errors are pretty serious and whatever is causing them should be dealt with. The problem you're likely encountering is that the blue screen disappears so damn fast that you can't possibly write any information down. How can you fix a problem if the computer won't even tell you what it is?

Windows XP Users: If can still boot the computer, even into safe mode, you're in luck (look two posts up for instructions on how to boot into safe mode). Once you've booted the computer:

Control Panel -> System -> Advanced Tab -> Startup And Recovery (Settings) -> Uncheck Automatically Restart under System failure.

This should disable the automatic restart on blue screen, giving you all the time you need to write down the error. If you're getting a blue screen even when trying to boot into safe mode you're probably out of luck and could likely benefit from repairing your Windows installation using the repair function of the Windows installer.

Windows Vista Users: Vista users actually luck out because even without being able to boot Windows you can disable the automatic BSOD shutdown. When you get to the boot menu (by pressing F8 while the computer boots up), select "Disable automatic restart on system failure". Then select whichever option you desire to load Windows normally.

Now you've got the blue screen up. Generally what is most important is the error name (PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA in the example picture above) and the STOP code(s). Many times you can find solutions for common stop codes by searching Microsoft's Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com/). Take down the file that encountered the error, if displayed.

If you're getting a blue screen error and have questions about it, having the actual code is 100000% more useful than telling us what you're doing when the error occurs.

Here's a list of common stop messages for quick reference.
 
Nobody likes a computer/technology question that has no crucial details. If it's an OS issue, that may be the only exception. I'm going to break down the crucial information needed for most types of problems.




Anything Hardware
  • Make and model of the device(s) you are having an issue with
  • What it's doing wrong
  • What you want it to do
  • When it started
  • Any tinkering you did before the issue has occured
  • Anything you have tried to solve the issue before you asked for help here
  • Anything else you think we need to know
Operating System
  • The OS and edition you are trying to work with
  • The problem
  • Basic hardware specs of the machine you are trying to work with it on
  • When it started
  • Any tinkering you did before the issue has occured
  • Anything you have tried to solve the issue before you asked for help here
  • Anything else you think we need to know
Applications and Programs
  • Basic hardware specs
  • Operating System and edition
  • Program you are trying to work with
  • When it started
  • Any tinkering you did before the issue has occured
  • Anything you have tried to solve the issue before you asked for help here
  • Anything else you think we need to know
If your problem doesn't fall under one of these catagories, use your judgement based on the above reccomended elements of telling of a problem.
 
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