Computer/Tech Questions

[Bigb23]

Stosh, you know me, you've been at my house. But can Microsoft acually redeem itself now ?

[Stosh]

Stosh, you know me, you've been at my house. But can Microsoft acually redeem itself now ?

It works for me. That's all I know. It stops scripts like that on my machine.
And really there's nothing that will absolutely protect you. Best defense is paying attention to where you go. For the money, I think it works OK.

[Bigb23]

The part that pisses me off is that I download all of these programs that don't seem to work.

[Stosh]

The part that pisses me off is that I download all of these programs that don't seem to work.

Try this antivirus program and disable AVG. Give it a shot, anyway.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

Then run the Malware bytes once a week to make sure.

[Wingnatic]

I've belonged to a forum for many years now , way back when it was MSN's Community help forum for websites similar to this one . MSN handed this pc help group off to a select group on non MSN employee's and they have been helping people with pc problems for many years now . Check it out , join if you wish and tell them MaDDoG [[my MSN name) sent you over .
http://www.community-feedback.com/

You don't have 2 AV programs on your pc do you ? The reason I ask is disabled or not 2 AV programs both want to be the boss and a pc won't react to that very well .

Community Feedback will help you step by step with malware removal , or other problems on the General board , its free help/advice , it always has been free . If you join and post , state your operating system .

[Lowell]

My gurus agree with Stosh's post 104 about using Microsoft Security Essentials.

However I would advise going beyond switching off your existing AV program[s]. Before installing MS Security Essential uninstall all your anti-virus programs first, Norton, McAfee, AVG etc.

Use the program Revo Uninstaller for this task. It goes beyond regular uninstall and scours your registry for any artifacts.

[Stosh]

My gurus agree with Stosh's post 104 about using Microsoft Security Essentials.

However I would advise going beyond switching off your existing AV program[s]. Before installing MS Security Essential uninstall all your anti-virus programs first, Norton, McAfee, AVG etc.

Use the program Revo Uninstaller for this task. It goes beyond regular uninstall and scours your registry for any artifacts.

Yes, that's correct. There are always leftovers from the installs functioning somewhere. That could also screw with your AV.

[jiminnm]

If you uninstall McAfee or Norton, be sure to go to their respective web sites and download the McAfee or Norton removal tool. Each of those programs leaves little bits and pieces around your system that a routine uninstall misses. You might also find links to those on majorgeeks.com.


I haven't had Lowell's success with Revo. From my experience, it does no more than launch Windows or a specific program's unistall function.

[Bigb23]

I've had issues with both Mcafee and Norton trials. This time I downloaded an uninstall program just in case. What a hassle.

[Bobl]

A friend wants me to load Dropbox. He says it's a great free way to exchange videos, photos and other files. Any caveats? Suggestions?

[Bigb23]

New Re Boot

[JROLLA]

I can't believe I've never seen this thread here. I love helping out if anyone's having issues.

[Bigb23]

I bumped it up, because I'd trust the members here for advice, than just searching Google randomly. Microsoft and Adobe updates are always screwing up my computer.

[Bigb23]

Just a warning, so people don't make a wrong click and get into trouble. There's about 115 links on Google news on this.

Google Warning Millions That Their PCs Are Infected By Virus
By George Gombossy | Last updated Jul 21, 2011, 7:58 am
“Google has begun issuing warnings to millions of people that their PC has been infected with a virus,” says a report today by BBC News.
“The malicious code pipes browser traffic through sites that promote the scammers’ wares which include fake security programs. Those hit by the virus will be warned with a message that will appear at the top of searches carried out via Google. The search firm estimates that more than two million people have been hit by the infection.”
Google security engineer Damian Menscher posted the following information:
Update July 20, 2011: We’ve seen a few common questions we thought we’d address here:
The malware appears to have gotten onto users’ computers from one of roughly a hundred variants of fake antivirus, or “fake AV” software that has been in circulation for a while. We aren’t aware of a common name for the malware.
We believe a couple million machines are affected by this malware.
We’ve heard from a number of you that you’re thinking about the potential for an attacker to copy our notice and attempt to point users to a dangerous site instead. It’s a good security practice to be cautious about the links you click, so the spirit of those comments is spot-on. We thought about this, too, which is why the notice appears only at the top of our search results page. Falsifying the message on this page would require prior compromise of that computer, so the notice is not a risk to additional users.
In the meantime, we’ve been able to successfully warn hundreds of thousands of users that their computer is infected. These are people who otherwise may never have known.
http://ctwatchdog.com/2011/07/21/goo...ected-by-virus

[Bigb23]

Wow, all I want is a skin for my laptop. Yes, It's looking a little beat up. [[Like me). But $35plus shipping/handling for a new skin ? What are they thinking?

[jcole]

Wow, all I want is a skin for my laptop. Yes, It's looking a little beat up. [[Like me). But $35plus shipping/handling for a new skin ? What are they thinking?

They're thinking they want to make some money on their product.
Also, if your laptop is an older model Dell, it more than likely doesn't accept the changeable lids that are out there.

[Bigb23]

I'm just off the new Yahoo email. Could they not make it harder? I gave up after a couple of try's. I have to write an extra email to send an email.Two emails to send one? Thanks IT Yahoo.

[Bigb23]

They're thinking they want to make some money on their product.
Also, if your laptop is an older model Dell, it more than likely doesn't accept the changeable lids that are out there.

I found an $8.99 [[free shipping) vinyl skin on Ebay. 75 to choose from.

My question is, I have unlimited 3G broadband until it hits 2.5 GB on downloads,[[within a 30 day period), then it slows to 256K [[Virgin Mobile Terms). I read a lot of news sites [[Macomb Daily/Freep etc.),that loads an incredible amount of advertising Flash Media that I don't want and probably robs me from my bandwidth "bank". Is there a way to read these sites clean of all this unwanted trash? I've done all of the right clicks to reduce the ads that I can. I really don't want to load a John Deere tractor "movie" while trying to read an article.

I'm on the latest Firefox and IE9 with Win7. And I don't want to change my OS.

And I know they have to make a buck. Just make them less annoying please.

Thanks for any help.

[Roq]

Thanks for any help.

Check out these several useful extensions for Firefox - there is even one for monitoring your bandwidth use.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-...using-firefox/

[Jimaz]

My question is, I have unlimited 3G broadband until it hits 2.5 GB on downloads,[[within a 30 day period), then it slows to 256K [[Virgin Mobile Terms). I read a lot of news sites [[Macomb Daily/Freep etc.),that loads an incredible amount of advertising Flash Media that I don't want and probably robs me from my bandwidth "bank". Is there a way to read these sites clean of all this unwanted trash? I've done all of the right clicks to reduce the ads that I can. I really don't want to load a John Deere tractor "movie" while trying to read an article.

I'm not certain whether this is still the best solution but I used to use a downloaded hosts file to block ads. Right after installation it bogged down my system terribly [[it was an enormous file) but after that there was no delay whatsoever. It shrewdly short-circuited ads' host URLs to your own computer which ignored it—no response, no ad. It is crucial to make it a read-only file to inhibit malware from corrupting it.

I used Gorilla Design Studio's hosts file but now they refer you instead to MVPS which seems current.

[Bigb23]

I'm not certain whether this is still the best solution but I used to use a downloaded hosts file to block ads.

I try not to download unknown [[to me) programs unless I can read reviews and comments like on CNet. Even then, half the comments thought the software was great, and the other half said it sucked and caused multiple problems.

To me, that's just a coin toss I'd rather not make. I'm still not a IT person.

[Roq]

I try not to download unknown [[to me) programs unless I can read reviews and comments like on CNet.

Here is the text version of the file Jimaz so kindly linked to [[and it is completely safe) http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt It will open up in a browser window and you can copy and paste it into notepad and there you go, your own hosts file.

Here is how to apply that host file:
http://accs-net.com/hosts/how_to_use_hosts.html

If you don't feel comfortable doing that, I would simply use the Ad-block & bandwidth monitor Firefox extensions I linked to above.

[Bigb23]

Thanks Roq,

I'll try the extension first and see how that works. But Mozilla seems to be one of the worst offenders, opening pop ups in the background that I constantly have to close.

Because of those, I'll rip my toenails out with rusty pliers before I ever use Netflix and other advertisers that show up like that.

[Jimaz]

I try not to download unknown [[to me) programs unless I can read reviews and comments like on CNet. Even then, half the comments thought the software was great, and the other half said it sucked and caused multiple problems.

To me, that's just a coin toss I'd rather not make. I'm still not a IT person.

That's perfectly understandable. If someone ever gave me a host file with something other than 127.0.0.1 in the first column I would be very suspicious.

And thanks for asking. I'm sure there are others who benefit from questions like this.

[Bigb23]

Thanks Jimaz- when you Google something and read those address lines - it's like walking into a smokey dive in the netherworld. I guess I'm about 80% accurate when I avoid that stuff. I try not to be blind when it comes to those places, but they always have a good pitch - then what? Two minute download, several weeks of repair. I've been there before. The "free" sites are the ones to watch out for.

How about:

http/MozzillaFirefox.cnet.downloads./we are the one for free/.nasty.es [[made that up!). Read not between the lines, BUT the lines.

Can I ask [[again), what your IT background is? You and Jcole seem to be the best around. Me, always catch up.