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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/20/2010 11:33:33 AM

PeonForHer

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quote:

ORIGINAL: MadameMarque

Be careful which programs you choose and from where you download them. Some programs and websites are purposely made to look like those from a trusted source, some "security" programs are spyware, themselves, and some downloads, even from recognized programs, are stuffed (bundled) with toolbars and search functions that amount to spyware, which you have to opt out of carefully - if you can at all.

I'll underline that. There's an awful lot of scumware out there masquerading as anti-spy, anti-adware and anti-virus software. I've seen a few very plausible sites that seem to belong to Spybot Search and Destroy, for instance, but are actually scumware sites (you need to google the entire phrase - not just 'Spybot'). There are also websites that pretend to compare different security programs. They don't. They just trumpet their own program at the expense of those of their competitors' by means of bogus statistics. These programs may, again, be scumware.

Got to be careful.

Hmmm. Interesting what you say about registry cleaners, MM. I'll check on that.

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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/20/2010 1:29:46 PM

thornhappy

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I had a variety of freebie (legit) malware detectors, and Norton (free from ATT), but had evil stuff on board that was detected by none of that software. System restore disabled, Windows security center trashed, and I couldn't get to Microsoft update or the Windows security site.

Finally wiped the drive and started over.

I'm on a laptop now running Webroot (for pay) and it finds all sorts of things that my old systems would've missed).

< Message edited by thornhappy -- 6/20/2010 1:30:44 PM >

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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/20/2010 1:55:34 PM

Missokyst

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I haven't used a pay program in over a decade. I use Avast antivirus, Malwarebytes when I have to put someone else's drive on my system, Superantispyware, Ad-aware, and Threatfire are also in my arsenal of tools.
The current recommendation from techy types are, one antivirus, and a minimum of two antispyware products.
Because I work on computers, when I do have to attach other drives into my system I do a thorough scan using any or all of my work tools. But usually I don't have to with a quick look-see at what is loaded in their local user settings I can tell what they might have picked up.
My own system has been pristine for as long as I have worked in this field. How do I know? One, it runs great! lol even Vista runs good on my secondary drive. And two.. I scanned it last year when a huge threat was released, btw.. that was only the 3rd time I have scanned my own system in over a decade. As expected, all programs found nothing.

If people paid attention to changes they might not be so shocked when systems went kablooie.

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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/20/2010 5:27:45 PM

DesFIP

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We had this problem a couple of years ago when the modem went bad. Took longer to diagnose it, then to fix it.

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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/20/2010 7:19:50 PM

Aneirin

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Registry cleaners I will not use on advice from the geeks at techsupportguy.com, they do not recommend them and seeing as they know their stuff, I will take their advice.

I did however use one years ago, Registry Mechanic and it so stuffed up my computer, at that time win98se, only a reformat and reload OS solved the problems. On my present computer, nope , no registry cleaners on this one, for I have learned.

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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/20/2010 7:51:51 PM

Masterlook4sub

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The geeks want you to bring it in to them so they charge you to get it done .

I have used ccleaner every day I'm on the Internet and PCtools 1 time every week on 2 P.C s , one desktop and one laptop for over 6 years with no problems ,

Every time you get on the Internet your P.C get junk loaded in to it and it has to be cleaned out or it will keep getting slower till it stop working . . .

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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/21/2010 4:48:30 AM

MadameMarque

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I'm just going by the latest advice from volunteer online techs, who guide you through cleaning your infected computer for free, and they explicitly advise against a registry cleaner. Again, here's one link about that: http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=30113

(Note that a registry cleaner isn't the same as a registry analyer or registry editing tool, items which should be used only by someone who really knows what they're doing.)

But you can turn the registry cleaning function off, in CCleaner, and still use it to clean all the other junk.

Their brief description:
CCleaner is our system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

Further details about CCleaner: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/features

quote:

ORIGINAL: Masterlook4sub

The geeks want you to bring it in to them so they charge you to get it done .

I have used ccleaner every day I'm on the Internet and PCtools 1 time every week on 2 P.C s , one desktop and one laptop for over 6 years with no problems ,

Every time you get on the Internet your P.C get junk loaded in to it and it has to be cleaned out or it will keep getting slower till it stop working . . .

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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/21/2010 5:36:04 AM

Aneirin

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Yeah, I also use CCleaner, have done for years with no problems at all.

But regarding the geeks I consult when I have an issue, they are scattered all across the world but come together on a very good computer help site and there help people like me when we have problems. There is no issue of a desire to extract money for said repairs, as most of them, in fact all of them advise for free, their interest, sharing their knowledge. They get their online kudos from successfully advising on a repair that fixes the reported fault and if you wish, you can donate to the site.

On my old computer, the pentium 2 with win 98, one I scrounged out of a skip and got working, I had a few issues, mostly weird spyware, (probably why it was in the skip), I cleaned the computer up totally with the help of the tech guys by downloading Hijack This programme and posting a HJT log so the geeks can analyse and advise.

All the scanners I use are the ones advised by that website, the geeks advise the use of them in their personal signature.

I did however use Majorgeeks at one time too and managed to clean a modern computer of a persistant virus that the paid for Trend Micro anti virus could not touch. The job was especially difficult, because firstly the computer OS was in a foreign language and the other thing was, I was totally new to computers, only having used the internet for two weeks previously.

What I have found regarding computers, is there is no need to pay a tech to fix them, for all the help you need is online for free, anyone can do it, as when one asks the techs, if you say you are a complete dunce, they will simplify and teach at the same time, even tell you what keys to press.

There are good people in the world as well as bad, which is very heartening.

Techsupportguy

Majorgeeks

< Message edited by Aneirin -- 6/21/2010 5:43:41 AM >

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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/21/2010 6:04:23 AM

DomKen

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Masterlook4sub

The geeks want you to bring it in to them so they charge you to get it done .

I have used ccleaner every day I'm on the Internet and PCtools 1 time every week on 2 P.C s , one desktop and one laptop for over 6 years with no problems ,

Every time you get on the Internet your P.C get junk loaded in to it and it has to be cleaned out or it will keep getting slower till it stop working . . .

Actually I'm not in any position where I make any money from whether you use a registry cleaner or not and I strongly recommend that people not use one. If you get a malware or virus your AV/anti-malware will clean the specific affected registry entries. Having some program scanning the whole registry DB for "bad" entries is very error prone and errors in deleting registry entries can result in very difficult to repair failures.

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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/21/2010 6:23:23 AM

PeonForHer

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Aneirin

Something else I've discovered is that it's useful to note any symptoms of a scumware attack on your computer. That way it's a lot easier to find the exact tool to fix the problem. A trojan downloader got past my Kaspersky and Windows Defender once and nothing could clean it out. So I did some googling with those key symptoms and found people who'd reported exactly the same problem, but who'd dealt with it using Malwarebytes.

Hmm. I've used various registry cleaners for quite a while, now, without any apparent problem. However, I've found that they make no discernible difference to the performance of my pooter, either. I'll think twice before using one again.

< Message edited by PeonForHer -- 6/21/2010 6:24:10 AM >

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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/21/2010 7:09:18 AM

Aneirin

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The thing is, most people would never think to go messing around in the registry, so why let a program do it, for registry cleaners can thow up all sorts of things that are not a problem and there invite you to delete them. Ever notice how with a registry cleaner there is a warning about deleting things, and with some, the option or recommendation you do a backup before responding to the cleaner's results. This speaks volumes to me, things like ha, that shows they have faith in their product. I would leave them well alone as they just create work for geeks and in some cases enhance the sales of computers as many would not think to fix, but bin and buy a new one.

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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/21/2010 8:37:15 AM

Missokyst

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If they ever looked inside the registry they would keep out. There are way to many files and folders in there, it would be like cutting off the blood stream of each vein until you found the one that was pointing to the underside of the middle toe on your left foot.

Ccleaner, Malwarebytes, Superantispyware, Ad-Aware, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Threatfire are all great programs and out there free at Download.com (cnet)

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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/21/2010 8:48:06 AM

mnottertail

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everyone should visit majorgeeks

get comodo internet its free and use it to shut down incoming ports. Glary utilities a few others are good registry cleaners.....not as good as the pay fors but not bad either.

No big deal the registry is one big flat file.

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RE: Weird PC Issue - Any Help? - 6/21/2010 6:08:10 PM

Termyn8or

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I'm not afraid of regedit.exe . I remember using it to eradicate that totally deesrving of the firing squad from a couple of OSes. (webshots comes to mind) Back then not everybody had all their disks and whatever. Hmmm, bout the same today I guess. But there are alot of things you can only do by editing the registry manually. Ask Bill Gates why, not me.

There is a search function so if you know what to search for you can delete or edit the appropriate keys. I don't quite grasp how it is categorized, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and all this. All I am really good for is to get something the hell outta there and hope for the best. Of course I know how to back it up first. But I am not going to devote the rest of my life to find out what "EEOF-9956-OOo9-reg±-EEOC-0086" means. Not my job.

But you can find certain strings in there with keywords, and thus figure a few things out. Usually a program has entries in a directory it created. As long as you are well backed up you should be able to delete it, hook, line and sinker. However some programs are more sticky. What could be a minor glitch costing you 0.16 seconds can turn into a background reinstall of a bunch of shit you don't want. When you have a popup blocker but still get a few from time to time, at least half of them are coming from your own harddrive. They did not activate when downloaded, so can't really be effectively detected. Then the registry call comes, who knows when. Now it's already there, all your "wares" don't detect much of what's not coming in.

We live in a world now where your cellphone can get a virus. But I got a suggestion to cure this. USE IT AS A PHONE. How can you catch a virus speaking into a microphone ? Since when does it take a movie of kids birthdays in surround sound and function as an internet connection ? It is a telephone. Go buy a camera, a laptop, whatever you want but all this is just getting too crazy. My cell fell into water like a year ago and the display is out. Know what I did about it ? Absolutely nothing. It dials out. It functions, that is all I expect. Now I hear tell I can throw my SIM into another phone that works right and see those 676,887 missed calls from solicitors etc. Big fucking deal. It functions as a phone, the only other thing it does is provide the accurate time of day. Fine with me.

KISS-Keep It Simple Stupid. Not to call anyone stupid, maybe it should be Keep It Simple And Stupid. I guess that would be pronounced like "kiss ass" huh. I'm open to other ideas on this front.

T

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