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Working in a shop where 75%+ of our work is malware removal, these CDs are an excellent resource and our first shot at most malware removal jobs.

The Windows Defender Offline tool seems to cycle between catching lots of crap and catching nothing. A new version was just released, 4.1.522. I used this one a lot, but it’s being surpassed by…

The Kaspersky tool is excellent, except that the update downloads are horribly slow. They need better servers or something.

The AVG offline scanner works, I think, but it’s hard to follow what it’s been doing. Crappy interface. I used it a few times with some tough infections but don’t use it anymore because I can’t tell what it’s up to or what it’s done or what to do next.

We will definitely play with the F-Secure tool.

-John

The libraries included an entry for my external drive, and that was also the default for storing playlists. How/Why that would happen is interesting.

Details I forgot to include…sorry! The idea here is very little user intervention, maybe zero. Also, this is a laptop. The data is a slowly growing collection of photos.

I went searching for info about SkyDrive, and started a drive for myself. I have 25 GB free space, and 22 GB of data being stored in the MS cloud. Took me a day to realize why my Internet tubes were so slow….that’s a helluva lot of data for a DSL connection and it’s uploading in the background. Not sure this is a good solution for the friend, but we’ll see.

Fred…thanks for that link. A veritable treasure trove.

First thing…detach the drive and see what happens. If the BSODs go away then troubleshoot the drive/jumpers.

The hidden files is a sure symptom of malware.

You have to download the free version MalwareBytes and install it. Let it update. (Decline to start the trial…)
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Restart in safe mode no networking. Run a full scan with MalwareBytes. This could take a while.

Restart into safe mode with network support. Use IE and go to http://go.eset.com/us/online-scanner and run their scanner, too. It could take a while.

This is the registry fix such as Dr Mike mentioned. Run it, and all your stuff should reappear.
http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/grinler/unhide.exe

Run MalwareBytes again, full scan. If it doesn’t come back clean, you have a more serious malware problem.

Yeah, I’m thinking slow RAM is still a lot faster than any HDD page file.

They may be the same size, and they have have the same amp-hours, but lead acid batteries can be substantially different in terms of total capacity, charging profile, and life expectancy. In most cases, you get what you pay for.

An example….any cheap battery can give you 150 mA for a week, which can be multiplied out to 7.2Ah. But NOT all UPS-sized batteries (“compatibles”) can give you 7.2 amps for an hour, and remain at an appropriate voltage. Again, you pay for that ability.

APC doesn’t make special batteries…if you can get the model number and brand off the battery (under their sticker) you can buy the proper one just about anywhere.

Note: little differences in the specs can make a difference in the capacity and longevity of the battery…each battery type has a slightly different charging design and so on. They’re usually close enough that the “battery that fits” will work, but don’t expect performance that matches specs unless you buy an exact replacement.

This caught my eye…the Computer Associates package being pushed by Comcast installers is a pig. It (or the Comcast installer person) doesn’t bother to check if you already have AV, and when it runs alongside another one, the system may as well be dipped in molasses.

ConstantGuard, I think it’s called. It might work just fine all by itself, but it’s making me a nice bit of beer money as I keep removing it from systems that have suddenly slowed.

-John

Dan….thanks. I had an idea the card readers were the issue but your explanation clears it up. I ended up wiping and restarting with good results.

Well…this is a new machine fresh from the assembler, I received it with no hdd. I installed XP to a brand new HDD. I think it had the DVD as C:, and one or two of the memory card slots in there too, before E.

I’ll definitely scrub all the partitions before I go again.

Thanks!

My former employer used ProtectorPlus for several years. It’s legitimate and worked well enough.

z-rod…I spent nearly 20 minutes trying to figure out that Ppt function to copy a slide from another pres. I was ready to ditch the entire app and quit my job at that point, dang I was frustrated…lol, can’t search in help for a function that no longer exists because they renamed it….and it’s been there since the first version, unchanged until 2007. Was it broken? Nope.

Ppt 2003 was a thing of beauty. The new features of 2007 were awesome, but who could ever find them? I was a power user of Ppt and Word through v2003, but as my job shifted focus I find I can’t do even simple tasks anymore. What a letdown.

I agree with most of the comments here that the ribbon is a bad interface.

My twist on it is the need for customization to even make it work. Searching for ten minutes to find a function that was so simple to find before is a joke…I may as well have switched to a different application altogether.

So say I customize it to fit my needs. One, for office apps I’m a user. I don’t want to learn how to customize the app to get it to work like it did for 17 years prior. Two, I tend to switch computers and systems, and use multiple systems, and customizing Office every time is a waste of my energy. I also do occasional user support, and fishing around for stuff in an uncustomized installation is a HUGE waste of time.

It’s like that cool Win 7 tweak you read about in the news letter…it works, you use it for a couple years and love it, but completely forget how it got there or where you learned about it. Get a new system, and you’re back to square one all over. This is the new Office….never the same interface twice. The need to customize the ribbon is its fatal flaw, IMO. I don’t recall these types of forums being filled with complaints about the menus, in fact the menu system made support and help easy.

In closing, they clearly designed the ribbon for new users. But these days, how many new users are there, compared to experienced users?

ps…there are tools that switch Office back to menus. I’m still using O-2003 until I find time to upgrade to O-2010 and install the menu switcher. I refuse to use the POS ribbon, simple tasks require 200% more time as I fish around searching for basic functions.