Keeping computer in good shape

Enzo1 said:
And let me tell you there's nothing fun about them. For those of whom who have had such an attack, they often download more rouge-software to make their removal nearly impossible......... Worse off, if a user doesn't know that it is a fake, then they give the program access to the files at which it kills making the unsuspecting victim's life on the computer very very miserable.
Click to expand...

I was getting at least 5 or 6 of these infections per day at my last job. I became an "expert" at removing the infections with a 98% success rate. The process involved using Process Explorer, a secondary account, and other tech tools. Once I figured out the infection vector and operation, I was able to snuff it out pretty quickly since the problem with the process was the time consumption. In the home environment, one can take as much time as needed for malware removal. In the corporate IT environment, time equals downtime for an employee which leads to lost production. This was particularly important in the sale environment where I worked as I supported the sales arm of the company I was with.

John
 
Don't want to get into the anti-virus debate, other than to suggest "doing your own "Google search" for the best anti-virus program/s that are independent report/s - sourced, eg: http://www.av-comparatives.org/dynamic-tests/ that bench-marked the Top Anti-Virus software - Internet Suites...

Note; several anti-virus companies push/claim that theirs is the best!!! Make sure the benchmark tests have been done by an independent company that's not pushing their own A/V borrow...

Free Util; - I regularly run a great little free utility call "Glary Utils" - http://www.glarysoft.com/glary-utilities/

Usually run this once a day when I start up my PC... Seems to do a great job!!!

I also run "CCleaner" once a week to sort out any registry problems that Glary Ulils hasn't cleaned... http://www.av-comparatives.org/dynamic-tests/

And hey, lets be careful out there!!! it's a jungle... :hehe:

Cheers, Mac...
 
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I am wary of CC Cleaner, as it is payware, and mirror freeware sites offering CC Cleaner are chock full of malware

I have heard that some registry cleaners do more harm than they do good
 
Thank you everyone. Around a week ago, I installed Iobit's Advanced System care, Smart Defrag and Malware fighter. When I first installed it, I scanned and it found some problems and I fixed them, and I noticed that on the desktop icon, it showed a small blue smiling emoticon. But about 3 days afterward, the desktop icon showed a small orange emoticon with a slight frown. Today, I used the free utilities from Advanced System care and am pretty glad I installed it. Would anyone know how to disable the autoclean feature of advanced system care?

I ran a full scan with Malware Fighter from Iobit and noticed, it found a threat called "quiknowledge" under a type called reg. It was somewhere in a location called HKEY_LOCAL but it said this threat was identified as a false positive. I repaired it though. For now, I think I'll use the free version of Malware Fighter instead of the free version of Malwarebytes because I have noticed that when I would perform a full scan with Malwarebytes, it found one or two threats, and when I clicked repair of fix, it would fix the problem but several days afterward, I would scan again and find the same threat with Malwarebytes

Again, I would like to thank everyone for giving me suggestions, reviews and opinions on the computer utilites. I definitely agree that we are the best antivirus. I think I'd use Advance System Care, Malware Fighter and scan with an antivirus program once a week.
 
meatloaf747 said:
Well John, congrats, someone had to win the lottery!!!

I'm half Irish, so I like to be sure, to be sure, to be sure... :hehe:

Happy trainzing,

Cheers, Mac...
Click to expand...

It's not a lottery, most of good security is process or best practices rather than a magic bullet.

Cheerio John
 
malikrthr said:
Thank you everyone. Around a week ago, I installed Iobit's Advanced System care, Smart Defrag and Malware fighter. When I first installed it, I scanned and it found some problems and I fixed them, and I noticed that on the desktop icon, it showed a small blue smiling emoticon. But about 3 days afterward, the desktop icon showed a small orange emoticon with a slight frown. Today, I used the free utilities from Advanced System care and am pretty glad I installed it. Would anyone know how to disable the autoclean feature of advanced system care?

I ran a full scan with Malware Fighter from Iobit and noticed, it found a threat called "quiknowledge" under a type called reg. It was somewhere in a location called HKEY_LOCAL but it said this threat was identified as a false positive. I repaired it though. For now, I think I'll use the free version of Malware Fighter instead of the free version of Malwarebytes because I have noticed that when I would perform a full scan with Malwarebytes, it found one or two threats, and when I clicked repair of fix, it would fix the problem but several days afterward, I would scan again and find the same threat with Malwarebytes

Again, I would like to thank everyone for giving me suggestions, reviews and opinions on the computer utilites. I definitely agree that we are the best antivirus. I think I'd use Advance System Care, Malware Fighter and scan with an antivirus program once a week.
Click to expand...


I scanned all my computers with the Iobit utilites and an antivirus scan. Everything is good but I would like to know how to get rid of this addon in internet explorer. They are both on my desktop and laptop and I am not sure if it is malicious or safe? It is a browser helper object called "Ads Removal" by Cheng Du VTools Information Technology. If this is malicious or not safe, would anyone know how to get rid of this add on. There are only options to enable and disable it.
 
This is called a BHO or Browser Helper Object and works as a browser add-on. They come in usually as part of something else that was downloaded and are not wanted due to performance problems and other possible malware attached. To remove the add-on from Internet Explorer, click on Tools and Manage Add-ons... You can then disable the add-on from your browser.

Once that is done, you can the use Program and Features to remove the unwanted app from your system. Once this is removed, rescan your system for any additional malware.

John
 
After 2 years of uninstalling Webroot (worthless), and 5 years of Norton, I am finally uninstalling Norton, as my year has expired.

I am leaning towards payware Glary ($11.99), and payware Malwarebytes ($29.99), both have 3 PC coverage.

I also run MS Security Essentaials

I have cleaned up my PC downloads CDPs, and sent them to an external 2TB Western Digital, MyBook, HD ... and dumped Funmoods PUP that seems to come with Firefox, or IE8 upgrade.

As I only have a 32 bit laptop, I am unsure if IE9 is compatable.

My PC was showing between 5Gb and 17Gb of free space, and Glary got my free space wiped clean, as your deleted file in free space, and recycle bin ... etc ... are never truely erased clean except for tools like Glary has ... deleted files are only marked for deletion and re-writing over top, and can be restored/read by allot of means.

I installed TRS2006 on another 2TB Western Digital, MyBook, HD, and it gets the identical framerates as on my cheepo integrated graphics laptop (@ 16-40 FPS).

I am unsure if a 2TB Western Digital, MyBook, HD is prone to failure after long term use of running Trainz (TRS2006) via a USB cable

I am experimenting with TS10 and TS12 running via a USB cable, on an external 2TB Western Digital, MyBook, HD ... connecting it to my 64 bit, 1TB desktop.

Should a disc, external HD ever be defragged ?
 
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cascaderailroad said:
After 2 years of uninstalling Webroot (worthless), and 5 years of Norton, I am finally uninstalling Norton, as my year has expired.

I am leaning towards payware Glary ($11.99), and payware Malwarebytes ($29.99), both have 3 PC coverage.

I also run MS Security Essentaials

I have cleaned up my PC downloads CDPs, and sent them to an external 2TB Western Digital, MyBook, HD ... and dumped Funmoods PUP that seems to come with Firefox, or IE8 upgrade.

As I only have a 32 bit laptop, I am unsure if IE9 is compatable.

My PC was showing between 5Gb and 17Gb of free space, and Glary got my free space wiped clean, as your deleted file in free space, and recycle bin ... etc ... are never truely erased clean except for tools like Glary has ... deleted files are only marked for deletion and re-writing over top, and can be restored/read by allot of means.

I installed TRS2006 on another 2TB Western Digital, MyBook, HD, and it gets the identical framerates as on my cheepo integrated graphics laptop (@ 16-40 FPS).

I am unsure if a 2TB Western Digital, MyBook, HD is prone to failure after long term use of running Trainz (TRS2006) via a USB cable

I am experimenting with TS10 and TS12 running via a USB cable, on an external 2TB Western Digital, MyBook, HD ... connecting it to my 64 bit, 1TB desktop.

Should a disc, external HD ever be defragged ?
Click to expand...

If you are running Win 7 generally speaking you shouldn't need to defrag a drive. USB 3 external drives perform practically the same as directly attached drives, USB 2 are slower. Anything other than Win 7 / 8 and I would very occasionally defrag the drive no matter if its directly attached or external but remember Trainz uses lots of very small files for most so they are too small to fragment so don't expect vastly increased performance after defragging.

Cheerio John
 
JCitron said:
This is called a BHO or Browser Helper Object and works as a browser add-on. They come in usually as part of something else that was downloaded and are not wanted due to performance problems and other possible malware attached. To remove the add-on from Internet Explorer, click on Tools and Manage Add-ons... You can then disable the add-on from your browser.

Once that is done, you can the use Program and Features to remove the unwanted app from your system. Once this is removed, rescan your system for any additional malware.

John
Click to expand...

Right now, the BHO "AdsRemoval" by Cheng Du VTools Information Technology is disabled. I had went into programs and features and it was not in the list of programs to uninstall. When I go to Manage addons in Internet Explorer and double click on the disabled addon, it shows that this addon is located in the Iobit Malware Fighter folder in Program Files (x86). Within the folder, there is an application called unins000. I am not sure if I should run that application or just get rid of the whole folder.
 
It looks like IOBit's Malware Fighter removed it for you.

Use the Control Panel and Programs and Features (Add remove programs) and uninstall it. the unist000 file is a part of the uninstall utility for the add-on. If you can't delete it, don't worry about it now as the malware remover has killed it. When you clean out the quarantine folder, it will be deleted then.

John
 
There've been mentions of Avast anti virus here and elsewhere on the forum. Well, I bought a Dell Inspiron N5110 used on Ebay last week and when it arrived it was in good mechanical condition and had Avast installed on it BUT.....not only had it apparently never been defragmented so it took about 3 hours and 9 passes to do, it seemed no Windows updates had ever been done. In addition it had the Browser Defender on which is a Browser Hijacker, and 5 other loads of malware including Delta Search and Webcake 3.0 which I have read can steal bank details! Seemingly Avast let all this stuff go? I am currently trying to remove Avast but it is dug in like a tick on a mangey dog.
 
lewisner said:
There've been mentions of Avast anti virus here and elsewhere on the forum. Well, I bought a Dell Inspiron N5110 used on Ebay last week and when it arrived it was in good mechanical condition and had Avast installed on it BUT.....not only had it apparently never been defragmented so it took about 3 hours and 9 passes to do, it seemed no Windows updates had ever been done. In addition it had the Browser Defender on which is a Browser Hijacker, and 5 other loads of malware including Delta Search and Webcake 3.0 which I have read can steal bank details! Seemingly Avast let all this stuff go? I am currently trying to remove Avast but it is dug in like a tick on a mangey dog.
Click to expand...

Nasty mess.

Try logging in as an administrator and in safe mode and see if that works. Avast is not a great antivirus product and might explain why it came with it, although since the system never had any other updates, it could be the previous owner never updated that either.

Would it be easier to do a fresh install of the system? Using its diagnostic and system partition, should that not have been destroyed, you can easily refresh the system. Sometimes it's easier to use brute force when fighting battles like this one. If needed, you can get the updated drivers and stuff directly from Dell very easily. All you need to do is go to their website under support, put in the Serial Tag number, and it will list all the drivers needed for the system.

John
 
Can I ask one question if I may? I have never bought a laptop and always built my own desktops, the question is! how do you renew the OS on a laptop if they don't supply you with a disk? or what happens if the hard drive brakes down? do you get a download of the OS from the manufacturer, or do you have to stump up the money for a new OS. which would seam a little too harsh since you already bought one with the computer.
 
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