Author |
Message |
Draheid
Moderator
09-09-2001
| Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 10:23 am
Vee: I recommend you restart your computer in 'Safe Mode' and run AdAware & Spybot repeatedly until they run without finding any problems. This may take several times to get your system completely cleaned of all adware or spyware type problems. To restart in safe mode, click 'Start - Run' and type MSCONFIG in the window then press Enter. Check the box for 'Diagnostic Mode' and click 'Ok' at which time your computer should prompt you to restart. Run AdAware first and use these steps to do a thorough system scan of your computer:- Under Ad-aware 6 - 'Settings (Click the Gear Icon) - Tweaks - Scanning Engine' check this: "Unload recognized processes during scanning."
- Under Ad-aware 6 - 'Settings (Click the Gear again) - Tweaks - Cleaning Engine' check this: "Let Windows remove files in use after reboot."
- Press "Scan Now"
- Check option "Use Custom scanning options"
- Check option "Activate In-Depth Scan"
- Press "Select drives\folders to scan"
- Select the active partition which is usually C:
- Press "Next" to let Ad-aware scan your drives...
- AdAware will find a number of "bad" files and registry keys. Click 'Next' again then Right-click in that pane and choose 'Select all'
- If it finds "bad" files and registry keys, click 'Next' again and it will ask you whether you'd like to remove all checked items. Click 'OK'.
- Finally, close Ad-Aware, and reboot.
Hope this helps
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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 11:51 am
Thanks, Draheid. I've done as you suggested; however, Spybot keeps coming up with an extremely tenacious problem called DSO Exploit. Despite 7 passes through, it was not able to completely remove it. Apparently, it is a security hole in Microsoft. I was directed to this web site: http://www.greymagic.com/security/advisories/gm001-ie/ . I don't know what to make of it... Should I be concerned or may I go back to sticking my head in the sand? 
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Bob2112
Member
06-12-2002
| Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 2:44 pm
Vee: What version of Spybot are you running? 1.3 is out and seems to be getting updated with more spyware info than 1.2 has. In fact, my 1.2 was not finding any updates and when I installed 1.3 it was checking for 15016 items, which was significantly more than 1.2 was doing. I actually uninstalled 1.2 before installing 1.3 but I can't remember if I had a problem or just did it that way for the heck of it.
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Draheid
Moderator
09-09-2001
| Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 2:47 pm
Vee: I've researched your issue and I presume you're using SpyBot version 1.3. This error has been reported numerous times and the information I'm finding is that it's actually a minor but known glitch in SpyBot, not your computer as such. The common consensus is that, if you have kept your system updated through Windows Update, then you should not have anything to worry about with this particular message report. I am sure the creators of SpyBot are working on a fix for this and I will try to keep an eye out for it as soon as I can. Hope this helps I see Bob jumped in while I was off researching - Thanks for the input too, Bob. Hope this helps you as well.
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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 3:12 pm
Yes, I am running SpyBot 1.3. Thank you, Dra, for the information and all the time it took to find it. I won't be too concerned about DSO Exploit then. Thanks to you too, Bob.
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Sweet_tooth
Member
01-25-2004
| Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 4:49 pm
thanks kelliripa and drahied. i think i got it fixed.
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Dlmmo
Member
11-20-2003
| Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 10:00 am
Wow you all honestly amaze me with your know how and researching. Now to the problem - At work we keep receiving e-mail returns from mail we haven't sent. If I right click on the return I get an number that is not ours (of course)- but that shows our e-mail as the return. We are using Outlook XP as our e-mail program. What can we do about this? Why are they spoofing our return address? Any help is appreciated. Thanks, Debra
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Draheid
Moderator
09-09-2001
| Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 10:37 am
Dlmmo: First of all, delete anything you receive that you are sure you did not originate! You can setup a 'Rule' in Outlook to automatically delete these type of messages so you don't have to worry about accidentally opening one. This is especially important because the 'payload' being sent is often still attached to the message when it is returned like this. It's possible that your e-mail address was in the address book of someone who received a virus or trojan program and sent the information to a spammer. The reason you're getting these 'bounce' messages is there is now a (probably different) spammer who is using your e-mail address to forge spam to a list that contains some bogus e-mail addresses and you're receiving the rejection notice from those addresses. The troubling factor is there are probably some valid addresses that think they are receiving something FROM YOU! Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any easy solution other then changing your e-mail address. Hope this helps
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Jan
Member
08-01-2000
| Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 11:27 am
Does the quick launch bar found in the bottom tray on Windows 98 use up a lot of system resources? Can things be safely removed from it? Mine has 17 programs on it but I only ever use it for two of them (but I do use it quite frequently for one of the two..wordweb)
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Dlmmo
Member
11-20-2003
| Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 11:48 am
Thanks Draheid. We are sure you are right about our address being in someone else's address book that started all this madness. I don't know whether we should change the address or not - if we do that won't stop the spoof e-mails from being sent - we just wouldn't receive the returns anymore. Hmmmmmm something to think about. Thanks!!
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Dlmmo
Member
11-20-2003
| Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 12:34 pm
Jan, I can't answer about the system resources part - but all you have to do to in order to delete the short cut is right click on it and hit delete.
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Draheid
Moderator
09-09-2001
| Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 12:50 pm
Jan: The shortcuts on the toolbar might use a few bytes of resources simply because of the added colors in the image displayed. The amount is negligible to your system, though, and deleting them wouldn't make much difference in your overall system resources. Deleting them won't cause any problems either since they are usually copies of shortcuts found on the start menu anyway. Hope this helps
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Jan
Member
08-01-2000
| Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 12:56 pm
thanks Mr "Hope this helps™"..you always do help  and thanks Dlmmo for your info too.I did not realize they were only shortcuts and so easy to remove
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Legalboxer
Member
11-17-2003
| Friday, July 16, 2004 - 6:12 pm
what can be the problem when the computer wont shutdown - it freezes on the windows 98 shutdown frame - it was fine yesterday morning and then i get home and it is frozen - i have tried to turn it on and off with the power switch, i have run several virus scans, i disabled the exit sounds... but it still freezes when i try to shut down or restart and it is NOT win 98 Second Edition - just plain Win 98 (i did look online for solutions and most only talk about the SE problem) so any ideas??
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Draheid
Moderator
09-09-2001
| Friday, July 16, 2004 - 6:24 pm
Legalboxer: There are many articles that give various tips on how to determine the problem. One of the first steps in several of them is to disable 'Fast Shutdown'. To do this, click 'Start - Run' then type msconfig and press [Enter]. Click 'Advanced' and place a check next to 'Disable Fast Shutdown'. Click 'Ok' to exit and save this change. This alone may fix your problem. (Alternate instructions for this process from Microsoft here) If not, try the Windows Shutdown Troubleshooter tips. Hope this helps
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Legalboxer
Member
11-17-2003
| Friday, July 16, 2004 - 6:49 pm
actually i tried both of those - the msconfigure doesnt list 'Disable Fast Shutdown' so that was not an option and i did look at the other website and tried most of the things on there to no avail... but thanks .. i will keep trying what tips i find online
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Luvmyjrt
Member
09-18-2003
| Friday, July 16, 2004 - 7:40 pm
Ahem, I know this is a question that will yield a few "bad girl" remarks, but here goes anyway: I have a Sony Vaio operating Win XP. I thought, I swear I thought it came with Microsoft Word and Excel. But, can't find them..........anywhere! I have a floppy with some of my work on it that is in Excel. It won't convert for me, but the Word documents open in Word Pad. Can anyone help me? Short of buying Microsoft Office? Thanks!
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Draheid
Moderator
09-09-2001
| Friday, July 16, 2004 - 9:03 pm
Luvmyjrt: What do you want to convert the files to? I have MS Office 2000 Professional and may be able to convert them for you but I would need to know what format you want them in. If you only need to be able to 'View' the Excel files, and they are in either Excel/97 or Excel/2000, you can download a free program for viewing these directly from Microsoft by clicking here There are a few other Viewers and Converters from Microsoft at this link also. Hope this helps
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Draheid
Moderator
09-09-2001
| Friday, July 16, 2004 - 9:05 pm
Legalboxer: I'm sorry those sites were not able to help you resolve the problem. The only other suggestion I have is to bring up a Task Manager (press Ctrl-Alt-Del) and end task some of the programs running. Then try shutting down. Repeat with different running programs until you can discover which may be causing the problems. Hope this helps
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Donut
Member
07-31-2001
| Friday, July 16, 2004 - 10:29 pm
Wierd computer happenings here... Last week my dad-in-law's computer started saying that the modem was not working or was busy and wouldn't get on the internet, except sometimes after a few tries. Now all of a sudden our laptop is doing the same thing! and he uses AOL and we use MSN and we live in different cities so there's no common bond... Has anyone else been getting this recently or have a clue about it?? Also, our laptop has been miserable in general for the last several weeks, taking forever to come on and to go on the net, or move around it. It just grinds... It goes better if we remove all the extraneous programs(that are trying to run in the background on start up) by doing control-alt-delete for each one..It's a pain doing it everytime.. Is there someway to just get rid of them altogether? And even when they are gone, things are still slow.. We thought it was our scanner-printer-copier and took that off, and put back the simple printer, and then we thought it was MSN8 so we changed it to the simpler MSN 7 but it still does it.. Does this sound like a virus, or memory problem or something else? and is there an easy fix? Does it have anything to do with Spyware? Thanks oh ye computer geniuses!!
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Draheid
Moderator
09-09-2001
| Friday, July 16, 2004 - 11:02 pm
Donut: I'm not sure if these will help with the modem troubles but I'll bet they will help with the slowness of your comptuers: Download, install, and run each of these to clear out any adware or spyware on your computer which can cause all manner of slowdowns and other problems. Hope this helps
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Luvmyjrt
Member
09-18-2003
| Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 5:42 am
Dra: I would like to be able to at least view the Excel files, if nothing else. Is there a way to modify them as well. The office PC runs Windows 2000 professional. Thanks for your help, as always!
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Luvmyjrt
Member
09-18-2003
| Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 8:34 am
Dra: Thanks for the link to the Excel viewer. It works great! But I'd like to be able to modify the data at home, so is it possible to convert the files to Word Pad? If not, the viewer is very helpful, but I'd like to be able to change data either at home or at work. As usual, your genius is greatly appreciated!
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Draheid
Moderator
09-09-2001
| Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 9:58 am
Luvmyjrt: There isn't anything you can use at home short of Excel itself to modify the files. You might be able to copy & paste the viewed file into wordpad but that wouldn't give you any way to put the changed data back into the file either. If you're going to be working from home on a frequent basis, you might want to request the company provide you with a copy of Office for your use at home. Often times large companies do have a 'site license' which allows them to pay a much smaller fee for each installation. ALternatively, if you or someone in the immediate family has any sort of 'academic' status (student, faculty, or staff of an educational facility), you may qualify for the 'academic' version of Office which typically sells for around $150 (instead of the retail of around $600+ for the same programs), ask your local software store about this or check online. Hope this helps
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Luvmyjrt
Member
09-18-2003
| Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 2:36 pm
It does! Thanks, Dra!
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