Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
On Wed Apr 21, 2010; Bob Sneidar bobs at twft.com wrote: Hi Wilhelm. (snip). So it does not surprise me that your visiting a reputable site resulted in an infection. What DOES surprise me is that your antivirus (assuming it is up to date) did not catch it. Perhaps this happened before you installed the antivirus? The hsyfea.exe looks like a random file name, which was typical of a particularly nasty bit of malware I came across a while back called coolwebsearch. The installer installed several variants of itself using random file names, which required a program called HijackThis and a series of safe boots to remove the hijacker. Even then, with some flavors of the adware you never got all the pieces, and the recommendation at that point was a clean reinstall. The other one turned up some interesting google hits. I believe this to be a particularly nasty one, but if your Antivirus found it, then it should have prevented it, unless as I said, you got it before you installed Antivirus. If you got it first, then there is a possibility it installed a rootkit, in which case nothing but a wipe and reinstall to a new partition, and to be safe, a reset of the CMOS first, will guarantee it's removal. My condolences. Bob Hi Bob, Again, thanks for your feedback and your condolences! My Antivirus had been in place *before* my computer was infected. The software had been installed by an IT-competent colleague, but - as I understand now - set to a medium scan level to prevent too much delay on startup of the computer. I had changed the scan level to high after I had experienced the constantly appearing ads and subsequently found the two viruses. Two findings concerning the Internet Explorer on my WindowsXP machine, which cannot be removed, but apparently somehow deactivated by transferring a number of movable supporting files to another folder: - IE can no longer be started even if you click directly on the exe-file. - There have been no automatic updates of WindowsXP since I have deactivated the Internet Explorer, which could mean that IE plays a role in the update process. Best regards, Wilhelm ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
- There have been no automatic updates of WindowsXP since I have deactivated the Internet Explorer, which could mean that IE plays a role in the update process. My limited experience with XP is that Internet Explorer is, somehow, part of the operating system and IS the vehicle for Windows updates. This is like using Konqueror on Debian Linux; as both a file browser and a web-browser - d**n dangerous as one can lose sight of what is on your computer and what is elsewhere. ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
Hi Wilhelm. I checked the URL with our corporate content filtering system and it came up clean, so the site seems reputable. However, I just read an article about how reputable sites are getting compromised, and either a redirect is put in place, or the site itself is being compromised. Simply visiting a compromised site can infect an unpatched machine. So it does not surprise me that your visiting a reputable site resulted in an infection. What DOES surprise me is that your antivirus (assuming it is up to date) did not catch it. Perhaps this happened before you installed the antivirus? The hsyfea.exe looks like a random file name, which was typical of a particularly nasty bit of malware I came across a while back called coolwebsearch. The installer installed several variants of itself using random file names, which required a program called HijackThis and a series of safe boots to remove the hijacker. Even then, with some flavors of the adware you never got all the pieces, and the recommendation at that point was a clean reinstall. The other one turned up some interesting google hits. I believe this to be a particularly nasty one, but if your Antivirus found it, then it should have prevented it, unless as I said, you got it before you installed Antivirus. If you got it first, then there is a possibility it installed a rootkit, in which case nothing but a wipe and reinstall to a new partition, and to be safe, a reset of the CMOS first, will guarantee it's removal. My condolences. Bob On Apr 20, 2010, at 1:55 PM, Wilhelm Sanke wrote: I tried to recapitulate what I could have done terribly wrong. First, I have got both a virus scanner running in the background and one which I invoke manually from time to time. I was searching for programs that use the Gluas-plugin for embedding the Lua language for image processing and - among other sites - arrived at http://www.thebest3d.com/gluas/ which seems to be safe. From there I clicked the link to Pixarra TwistedBrush Pro and that seems to me to be the source of all the trouble, meaning simply just going to that site. I did not download anything from the TwistedBrush site. This happened twice, I will not test this a third time. Maybe anybody else could check? The following malware was then installed on my WindowsXP computer: Hsyfea.exe (in C:Windows) sshanas21.dll (in C:windows\system32) which then seems to have launched the Microsoft Internet Explorer about every 5 minutes (until I disassembled the Internet Explorer).-- Wilhelm Sanke ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
I might agree, except that the recent bout of Apple security updates is due to a new flaw discovered that would allow complete control of a Mac system using a drive by browser exploit. And remember, we cannot use fully patched systems as a benchmark for current vulnerabilities as Microsoft could easily claim their system is almost 100% invulnerable using that standard. You might then argue that it wasn't the OS itself that was being exploited, but rather some piece of software running on the Mac. That will be poor fare for the person who is the next victim. The software that came on the Mac is for all practical purposes part and parcel with the OS. Virtually every process running on the Mac besides the kernel is some piece of software. While I still maintain the Mac OS X to be the most stable and secure OS on the open market, I want to stop short of stating any absolutes, as there are a number of people who would take great joy in pointing out I was wrong about something. I mustn't ever give them that opportunity. On the rare occasions I have been misguided or misquoted I have done quite a good job at covering it up, and I want to preserve that reputation. ;-P Bob On Apr 16, 2010, at 10:14 AM, Bill Vlahos wrote: Not just rare. There are no viruses for the Mac other than the old Microsoft Office viruses. There are some other trojans for the Mac but they are rare and are not really found in the wild. Of course, those need the user's assistance to run as well. One of the advantages of Sean Shao ssMacWindows is that he has made available a feature on the Mac that prevents key loggers. I've implemented it in the 1.1.x version of InfoWallet. I wish there was a similar feature for Windows. If anyone knows of an option for Windows please let me know. Bill Vlahos _ InfoWallet (http://www.infowallet.com) is about keeping your important life information with you, accessible, and secure. On Apr 16, 2010, at 5:24 AM, Richard Gaskin wrote: Tempting as such a thought may be, consider that since most Win users smart enough to know they need anti-virus software have probably already done so, the more ripe opportunity would be to deploy viruses for OS X. But such viruses remain rare, even proportionate to market share. ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
I suspect the something right you are doing is keeping everything currently patched, using at least one if not two firewalls, and installing and maintaining a good Anti-virus/anti-spyware application. I am an IT guy, and I can testify to the exact same thing. But might I offer this, that the successful defense betrays the attack? If it weren't a real problem for everyone, you wouldn't have needed to do any of those things. Bob On Apr 16, 2010, at 12:27 PM, Paul D. DeRocco wrote: I use Windows day-in, day-out, for software engineering, electronic engineering, math, Photoshop editing, mapping, and constant web browsing. I've been a heavy Windows user since 3.0, and am currently running XP and Win7 on three machines. Although I have a virus scanner, I don't even bother to run it in the background, only invoking it manually when I download an install file from the internet. Despite all this, I've _never_ had a virus or any kind of malware. My only system failures have been the occasional result of a RAM or hard disk failure. So either I'm doing something terribly right, or you all are doing something terribly wrong. -- Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco Paulmailto:pdero...@ix.netcom.com ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
RE: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
From: Bob Sneidar I suspect the something right you are doing is keeping everything currently patched, using at least one if not two firewalls, and installing and maintaining a good Anti-virus/anti-spyware application. I am an IT guy, and I can testify to the exact same thing. But might I offer this, that the successful defense betrays the attack? If it weren't a real problem for everyone, you wouldn't have needed to do any of those things. Yup, that's pretty much what I do. My only point is that if you use Windows correctly, it's quite secure, so anyone who knows what he's doing, and who needs a Windows box to test cross-platform stuff, needn't regard it as automatically having cooties. -- Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco Paulmailto:pdero...@ix.netcom.com ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
On Apr 16, 2010, at 12:27 PM, Paul D. DeRocco wrote: I use Windows day-in, day-out, for software engineering, electronic engineering, math, Photoshop editing, mapping, and constant web browsing. I've been a heavy Windows user since 3.0, and am currently running XP and Win7 on three machines. Although I have a virus scanner, I don't even bother to run it in the background, only invoking it manually when I download an install file from the internet. Despite all this, I've _never_ had a virus or any kind of malware. My only system failures have been the occasional result of a RAM or hard disk failure. So either I'm doing something terribly right, or you all are doing something terribly wrong. -- Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco Paulmailto:pderocco at ix.netcom.com I repeat here for emphasis: So either I'm doing something terribly right, or you all are doing something terribly wrong. I tried to recapitulate what I could have done terribly wrong. First, I have got both a virus scanner running in the background and one which I invoke manually from time to time. I was searching for programs that use the Gluas-plugin for embedding the Lua language for image processing and - among other sites - arrived at http://www.thebest3d.com/gluas/ which seems to be safe. From there I clicked the link to Pixarra TwistedBrush Pro and that seems to me to be the source of all the trouble, meaning simply just going to that site. I did not download anything from the TwistedBrush site. This happened twice, I will not test this a third time. Maybe anybody else could check? The following malware was then installed on my WindowsXP computer: Hsyfea.exe (in C:Windows) sshanas21.dll (in C:windows\system32) which then seems to have launched the Microsoft Internet Explorer about every 5 minutes (until I disassembled the Internet Explorer).-- Wilhelm Sanke ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
On Thu Apr 15, 2010, Bob Sneidar bobs at twft.com wrote: Hi Wilhelm. I know pretty much why all of these things you mentioned work the way they do but I will not go into that here. What you have is a particularly nasty flavor of spyware, that has several processes that checks up on the other bits of itself to make sure you don't do exactly what you are doing. When they detect that you are attempting to remove the other pieces they simply restore them. There are a couple of approaches I could recommend, but none of them are guaranteed to succeed, at least not completely. Once you get a bug like this, only a wipe (including deleting the partition and creating a new one) and reinstall of the OS is going to guarantee success. (snip) 2. Install XP sp2 or higher (avoid Vista just because it sucks, Win 7 is great) Hello Bob, Thank you for your comprehensive analysis of my troubles and the recommendations of how to proceed. I am already runnning XP sp2. - Just to make this clear, would you think it possible that the Microsoft Internet Explorer itself could be transformed into such a self-replicating spyware? In any case, since I have disassembled the Internet Explorer in the way I described in my last post, I am - until now - no longer the target of such annoying intrusions, or is this merely a coincidence in time? To test the protectiveness of Microsoft for the IE - as I had pointed out which was the cause for the European Union to sue Microsoft - I looked at one of my other Windows computers also running WindowsXP SP2 - an Asus laptop: I encountered the same problems here when trying to remove the Internet Explorer. Renaming the folder is being denied, renaming file iexplore.exe is possible, but immediately after the renaming a new instance of iexplore.exe appears. Maybe we could get the European Union to sue Apple as well in case they do not alter their presumed restrictive policy concerning the development of apps for IPhone and iPad? After all, although they have not yet introduced the new European currency, Edinburgh and the UK are indeed lying on the Northern fringe of Europe. That about sums it up. If all that seems unreasonable, I would suggest looking into the Apple OS X. Nothing is perfect, but real exploits for this OS are very rare, and there are none I know about presently that a fully patched OS can be compromised by. I am an IT pro and I have to live and work in both worlds. Most of my time is spent fixing and protecting the Windows side of things. I also live in both worlds and have used MacOS since the invention of Hypercard. But I need Windows, because most of the computers in our institution run Windows, with an increasing shift towards Linux. Only our College of Fine Arts relies mainly on MacOS. Best regards, Wilhelm ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
In any case, since I have disassembled the Internet Explorer in the way I described in my last post, I am - until now - no longer the target of such annoying intrusions, or is this merely a coincidence in time? I think the risk is too great to assume your PC is now safe. At the very least there can be keyloggers and screen-capture software installed. Such malware is designed to NOT draw attention to itself. I think all Windows installations must be assumed to be toxic. I've seen people do comparisons of umpteen different anti-virus solutions. Most of the AV solutions had a 10% miss rate on viruses that were known to be on the machine. Any institution should be running a standard, automated build, and Windows installations should be replaced very frequently. When I was in charge of a NT/Win2K network, that's what we did. At the time there was no solution we could buy in, so it fell to me to develop the solution. My experience last week has just meant I've made the final leap away from Windows as anything more than a toxic OS. It's no wonder that I know several people who've suffered identity theft, and at least two of these were professional IT staff using Windows. For at least 5 years I've advised all my friends and family to just buy a mac. None of those mac-only users have suffered identity theft. I'm not even entering into the argument about whether or not windows is insecure by design - it is just obvious that it is the largest target. Bernard ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
As an aside, I have for years wondered if it wasn't the anti-virus vendors themselves who pay certain shady characters to come up with these viruses. Food for thought. This thought has occurred to me too. Bernard ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
Bernard Devlin wrote: As an aside, I have for years wondered if it wasn't the anti-virus vendors themselves who pay certain shady characters to come up with these viruses. Food for thought. This thought has occurred to me too. Tempting as such a thought may be, consider that since most Win users smart enough to know they need anti-virus software have probably already done so, the more ripe opportunity would be to deploy viruses for OS X. But such viruses remain rare, even proportionate to market share. The upside about Windows for makers of anti-virus tools is that they don't need to risk criminal penalties to make money; Microsoft's inherently brittle security architecture leaves plenty of opportunities for such companies to make money legally. ;) -- Richard Gaskin Fourth World Rev training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com Webzine for Rev developers: http://www.revjournal.com revJournal blog: http://revjournal.com/blog.irv ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
Not just rare. There are no viruses for the Mac other than the old Microsoft Office viruses. There are some other trojans for the Mac but they are rare and are not really found in the wild. Of course, those need the user's assistance to run as well. One of the advantages of Sean Shao ssMacWindows is that he has made available a feature on the Mac that prevents key loggers. I've implemented it in the 1.1.x version of InfoWallet. I wish there was a similar feature for Windows. If anyone knows of an option for Windows please let me know. Bill Vlahos _ InfoWallet (http://www.infowallet.com) is about keeping your important life information with you, accessible, and secure. On Apr 16, 2010, at 5:24 AM, Richard Gaskin wrote: Tempting as such a thought may be, consider that since most Win users smart enough to know they need anti-virus software have probably already done so, the more ripe opportunity would be to deploy viruses for OS X. But such viruses remain rare, even proportionate to market share. ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
Bernard Devlin wrote: I think all Windows installations must be assumed to be toxic. Yes, that's the assumption I use too. It's also the reason I'm so much in favor of running Windows in a virtual machine. In Parallels (and maybe other emulators too, I'm not sure,) you can set a sort of bookmark for the current state of the machine, and when you're done working you can revert to that state. That removes anything that's been installed on the virutal hard drive since the state was set. So I run Windows virtually, keep no important data on it, use it only for testing Rev apps and creating installers, and never use it to for email or web browsing. I've got virus detection software installed but it has never identified any malware. Rev's direct internet access works fine and I don't mess with anything else internet-related. So far, so good, and I haven't had to revert to the saved state yet. -- Jacqueline Landman Gay | jac...@hyperactivesw.com HyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
On 16/04/2010 21:05, J. Landman Gay wrote: Bernard Devlin wrote: I think all Windows installations must be assumed to be toxic. Yes, that's the assumption I use too. It's also the reason I'm so much in favor of running Windows in a virtual machine. In Parallels (and maybe other emulators too, I'm not sure,) you can set a sort of bookmark for the current state of the machine, and when you're done working you can revert to that state. That removes anything that's been installed on the virutal hard drive since the state was set. So I run Windows virtually, keep no important data on it, use it only for testing Rev apps and creating installers, and never use it to for email or web browsing. I've got virus detection software installed but it has never identified any malware. Rev's direct internet access works fine and I don't mess with anything else internet-related. So far, so good, and I haven't had to revert to the saved state yet. I run XP on a heap of old junk (Well; a COMPAQ Pentium 3, 256 MB RAM); headlessly - administered via my G4 Mac; it has no internet connexion and is ONLY there for checking Windows builds. Nevertheless I am already, after 3 months, getting endless error messages in the middle of the Desktop. I really wonder whether it is worth the effort reinstalling! ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
RE: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
Bernard Devlin wrote: I think all Windows installations must be assumed to be toxic. On 16/04/2010 21:05, J. Landman Gay wrote: Yes, that's the assumption I use too. It's also the reason I'm so much in favor of running Windows in a virtual machine. In Parallels (and maybe other emulators too, I'm not sure,) you can set a sort of bookmark for the current state of the machine, and when you're done working you can revert to that state. That removes anything that's been installed on the virutal hard drive since the state was set. So I run Windows virtually, keep no important data on it, use it only for testing Rev apps and creating installers, and never use it to for email or web browsing. I've got virus detection software installed but it has never identified any malware. Rev's direct internet access works fine and I don't mess with anything else internet-related. So far, so good, and I haven't had to revert to the saved state yet. From: Richmond Mathewson I run XP on a heap of old junk (Well; a COMPAQ Pentium 3, 256 MB RAM); headlessly - administered via my G4 Mac; it has no internet connexion and is ONLY there for checking Windows builds. Nevertheless I am already, after 3 months, getting endless error messages in the middle of the Desktop. I really wonder whether it is worth the effort reinstalling! I use Windows day-in, day-out, for software engineering, electronic engineering, math, Photoshop editing, mapping, and constant web browsing. I've been a heavy Windows user since 3.0, and am currently running XP and Win7 on three machines. Although I have a virus scanner, I don't even bother to run it in the background, only invoking it manually when I download an install file from the internet. Despite all this, I've _never_ had a virus or any kind of malware. My only system failures have been the occasional result of a RAM or hard disk failure. So either I'm doing something terribly right, or you all are doing something terribly wrong. -- Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco Paulmailto:pdero...@ix.netcom.com ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
Paul D. DeRocco wrote: Despite all this, I've _never_ had a virus or any kind of malware. My only system failures have been the occasional result of a RAM or hard disk failure. So either I'm doing something terribly right, or you all are doing something terribly wrong. I haven't had a virus either -- that I know of, which is an important distinction -- but I'm spooked by the number of people who have. The numbers are astonishingly high. Reports like this makes me very uncomfortable: Across the globe, the average number of PCs hit by malware now stands around 59 percent, an all-time high for the year. Among 29 countries tracked, the U.S. ranked ninth with slightly more than 58 percent of its PCs infected. Taiwan hit first place with an infection ratio of 69 percent, while Norway came in lowest with only 39 percent of its PCs attacked by malware. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10363373-83.html -- Jacqueline Landman Gay | jac...@hyperactivesw.com HyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
On 16/04/2010 23:14, J. Landman Gay wrote: Paul D. DeRocco wrote: Despite all this, I've _never_ had a virus or any kind of malware. My only system failures have been the occasional result of a RAM or hard disk failure. So either I'm doing something terribly right, or you all are doing something terribly wrong. I haven't had a virus either -- that I know of, which is an important distinction -- but I'm spooked by the number of people who have. The numbers are astonishingly high. Reports like this makes me very uncomfortable: Across the globe, the average number of PCs hit by malware now stands around 59 percent, an all-time high for the year. Among 29 countries tracked, the U.S. ranked ninth with slightly more than 58 percent of its PCs infected. Taiwan hit first place with an infection ratio of 69 percent, while Norway came in lowest with only 39 percent of its PCs attacked by malware. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10363373-83.html Would you buy a car which had a 59% component failure rate? Personally I'd rather go for a FREE car with a very small component failure rate (Linux); or a more expensive one with a very small component failure rate (Mac). Would you teach a class of kids when 60% of them were infected with Flu? I wouldn't; last time I did I spent 48 hours in bed sweating my way through a high fever. ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
Thought I might throw out some advice that has really made a huge and very important difference for me... I can't speak for others, but it takes between 25-28 hours for me to re-install windows, all of the windows updates and my software in the event of a major malfunction. (virus-wise or just the garden variety windows fun and games) These days I use a product from TeraByte Software, allowing me to completely restore my entire system in roughly one hour if there any problems. The key is that you do the backup right after a fresh installation of the O/S, with updates and all of your software in place. The name of the inexpensive product is Image For Windows and it's gotta be worth 5 times what they charge for it. ...I've had to use it 3 times recently on a crappy Vista machine, saving myself 80-90 hours and a lot of frustration. Here is a link if you folks want to check it out: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm Best regards, David ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
I just consigned windows to a read-only VM for ever. If it wasn't for Rev and it's failings on Linux, I wouldn't be running Windows at all. After getting a malware infection that disabled my AV and Windows Defender, and wouldn't let me reinstall AV (not even from safe mode), I restored the laptop from the official restore disks. That restore failed. Then I tried to install vanilla Vista. That failed (wouldn't accept the license number that came with the DVD, a DVD that came directly from Microsoft themselves). So I went back to use XP -- multiple BSODs, during the install. I considered getting Windows 7, but after reading the reviews over on Amazon, I decided I wasn't throwing more money at MS. I tried ubuntu 9.10. It asked a few questions, then installed in about 20 mins, everything working. Ten years ago it was so hard to get Linux up and running compared to Windows. Now the tables have turned. If it wasn't for their abusive monopoly position, there is no way MS would be able to get away with such rubbish. Bernard On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 10:15 PM, Andrew Kluthe and...@rjdfarm.com wrote: Sounds like you got some hijacks or some other kind of malware. Look it over with Malware Bytes Anti-Malware. I haven't used Adaware in quite a few years, but it might give you some solutions as well. -- View this message in context: http://n4.nabble.com/OT-Microsoft-is-really-annoying-tp1839949p1840457.html Sent from the Revolution - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
On 15/04/2010 11:09, Bernard Devlin wrote: snip If it wasn't for Rev and it's failings on Linux, I wouldn't be running Windows at all. Wow! I wonder how many other RunRev developers that is true for? Hello! Hello! Hello! It is time the RunRev folk in Edinburgh sat up and took notice! I am pretty sure, even if only because of financial considerations, that when my PPC Macs go 'pop' the only thing that would stop me going 98% Linux is the second-rate nature of the RunRev version for Linux. ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
The subject of this thread - which was started by me - sounds somewhat harsh and unfair, but the ongoing story of annoying popups of phony messages transported by the Microsoft Internet Explorer - without having been launched by me in each case - reminds me of the fight between Microsoft and the EU - the European Union - about forcing Microsoft to deliver a Windows platform that is not necessarily tied to an embedded Internet Explorer. At the moment I am not fully clear about the outcome of the fight. I remember that Microsoft should pay an amount of several million dollars, but I do not know, whether they have paid this sum and at the same time have changed their strategy. At least, from my experience during the last days, they have not yet - despite all the ongoing automatic updates - implemented the possibility to disengage their Internet Explorer from WindowsXP. A virus scan found 3 viruses on my computer, interestingly two of them with names identical to such of Windows system files. Removing this trojans did not help. After a while the ads via the popping-up Internet Explorer continued. I then thought about deinstalling the Internet Explorer. Using the Windows-provided de-installer I was informed that about 150 listed programs were somehow tied to the Internet Explorer and that the removal of the IE could produce serious damage. Among the programs listed were such like TwistAWord (scripted in RevTalk), Aquasoft DIASHOW mobile, Route 66 Sync, Lua for Windows, Mozilla Firefox, Nokia Ovi System Utilities, but of course also quite a number of programs which might indeed been somehow connected to the IE. I therefore discontinued this approach to remove the IE. I then tried to move the whole IE folder into the trash can. This is however impossible! Next step: I renamed the IE folder. Likewise impossible. Then: I tried to rename the file iexplore.exe. This was possible, but after a few moments a new copy of the IE appeared in the folder ( this was independent of the fact, whether I was connected to the net or not) Last resort: I created a new folder (named Hide) and tried to move the whole IE folder into that new one. This succeeded to some extent: Most of the files of the IE folder were moved into the new one, only file iexplore.exe itself along with two other files and an extra subdirectory refused to be moved. At least I have now separated IE from a number of accompanying files, and since then - so far - no new information about having won a new Toyota SUV, an iPad, or a journey around the world have appeared via IE. I hope this state will now remain so, but I am not entirely sure. Regards, Wilhelm Sanke ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
Sounds like you got ahold of one of the rare but not unheard of bugs that actually infect your boot sector. Sometimes you can mount a drive like that in an enclosure and connect it to a protected Windows computer and scan it. Typically if you are going to do a wipe and re-install, you should delete and recreate the partition, which the factory restore disk probably does not do. As an aside, I have for years wondered if it wasn't the anti-virus vendors themselves who pay certain shady characters to come up with these viruses. Food for thought. Bob On Apr 15, 2010, at 1:09 AM, Bernard Devlin wrote: I just consigned windows to a read-only VM for ever. If it wasn't for Rev and it's failings on Linux, I wouldn't be running Windows at all. After getting a malware infection that disabled my AV and Windows Defender, and wouldn't let me reinstall AV (not even from safe mode), I restored the laptop from the official restore disks. That restore failed. Then I tried to install vanilla Vista. That failed (wouldn't accept the license number that came with the DVD, a DVD that came directly from Microsoft themselves). So I went back to use XP -- multiple BSODs, during the install. I considered getting Windows 7, but after reading the reviews over on Amazon, I decided I wasn't throwing more money at MS. I tried ubuntu 9.10. It asked a few questions, then installed in about 20 mins, everything working. Ten years ago it was so hard to get Linux up and running compared to Windows. Now the tables have turned. If it wasn't for their abusive monopoly position, there is no way MS would be able to get away with such rubbish. Bernard On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 10:15 PM, Andrew Kluthe and...@rjdfarm.com wrote: Sounds like you got some hijacks or some other kind of malware. Look it over with Malware Bytes Anti-Malware. I haven't used Adaware in quite a few years, but it might give you some solutions as well. -- View this message in context: http://n4.nabble.com/OT-Microsoft-is-really-annoying-tp1839949p1840457.html Sent from the Revolution - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying
Hi Wilhelm. I know pretty much why all of these things you mentioned work the way they do but I will not go into that here. What you have is a particularly nasty flavor of spyware, that has several processes that checks up on the other bits of itself to make sure you don't do exactly what you are doing. When they detect that you are attempting to remove the other pieces they simply restore them. There are a couple of approaches I could recommend, but none of them are guaranteed to succeed, at least not completely. Once you get a bug like this, only a wipe (including deleting the partition and creating a new one) and reinstall of the OS is going to guarantee success. If you take that approach, let me make a few suggestions: 1. Buy and have ready a good Antivirus/antispyware package to install IMMEDIATELY as soon as your new OS boots 2. Install XP sp2 or higher (avoid Vista just because it sucks, Win 7 is great) to make sure the Windows Firewall is on by default. If you do not have these, as many old restore disks will not, then do not connect to ANY internet connection until you have enabled the Windows firewall and installed the AV package as described above. 3. At this point you *should* be safe enough to connect to the internet and download and install ALL the Windows Updates you find. This process can take 3 to 5 passes. Be patient. Do not give up. Your computer needs to be fully patched before you do anything else. 4. Several things to keep in mind after you are up and running: a. Stay away from questionable sites. I don't need to elaborate. Organized Crime pays good programmers to develop undetectable bugs. b. Never EVER click a link in an Email, no matter WHO sends you the email. Spam software can make an email look like it came from anyone. c. NEVER install software that you haven't paid money for. Nothing is free. NOTHING. d. Turn off the preview pane in your email, at least until you have trained your spam blocker about what is crap and what is not. e. Use a non-administrator account as much as possible. Yes it's a pain, but you've done half the hackers work for them by using an admin account. f. NEVER let anyone you do not trust implicitly, use (and especially fix) your computer with the admin account. This includes your wife, kids and family pet. Especially not the kids. More compromises happen because an unwitting friend installs bad software to fix an ailing computer, than I can tell you about. That about sums it up. If all that seems unreasonable, I would suggest looking into the Apple OS X. Nothing is perfect, but real exploits for this OS are very rare, and there are none I know about presently that a fully patched OS can be compromised by. I am an IT pro and I have to live and work in both worlds. Most of my time is spent fixing and protecting the Windows side of things. Bob On Apr 15, 2010, at 1:44 PM, Wilhelm Sanke wrote: The subject of this thread - which was started by me - sounds somewhat harsh and unfair, but the ongoing story of annoying popups of phony messages transported by the Microsoft Internet Explorer - without having been launched by me in each case - reminds me of the fight between Microsoft and the EU - the European Union - about forcing Microsoft to deliver a Windows platform that is not necessarily tied to an embedded Internet Explorer. At the moment I am not fully clear about the outcome of the fight. I remember that Microsoft should pay an amount of several million dollars, but I do not know, whether they have paid this sum and at the same time have changed their strategy. snip ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
Since this morning - after 2 automatic updates on my WindowsXP PC, which took place when I shut my computer down after the first session - I am constantly being pestered by the Microsoft Internet Explorer popping up when I connect to the net. When I close the Explorer with the dialog Internet Explorer is your default web browser? Yes, No (or similar) with the no button, it closes, but reappears after a while. This is a real nuisance! Anybody else has experienced this, too? ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
Obviously you have: 1. Automatic updates which is not a great idea, the most I recommend is Download and notify. 2. It probably installed IE8 in the update which has, by default, check whether its the default browser everytime it starts up. You can go into the options and turn this check off. 73 Neal Campbell Abroham Neal Software www.abrohamnealsoftware.com (540) 645 5394 NEW PHONE NUMBER Amateur Radio: K3NC Blog: http://www.abrohamnealsoftware.com/blog/ DXBase bug reports: email to ca...@dxbase.fogbugz.com Abroham Neal forums: http:/www.abrohamnealsoftware.com/community/ On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 11:24 AM, Wilhelm Sanke sa...@hrz.uni-kassel.dewrote: Since this morning - after 2 automatic updates on my WindowsXP PC, which took place when I shut my computer down after the first session - I am constantly being pestered by the Microsoft Internet Explorer popping up when I connect to the net. When I close the Explorer with the dialog Internet Explorer is your default web browser? Yes, No (or similar) with the no button, it closes, but reappears after a while. This is a real nuisance! Anybody else has experienced this, too? ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
So, I'm a Mac user, and I very often debate as to whether or not I want to deal with these sorts of Windows issues over the Mac ones (yes, we Mac users also have issues ;-)). As for your issue, I think you can just go into the Internet Explorer options and under advanced (iirc) is an option for Check to see if IE is your default browser. Just turn that off. ...or you could switch to Chrome/FireFox. Jeff M. On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 10:24 AM, Wilhelm Sanke sa...@hrz.uni-kassel.dewrote: Since this morning - after 2 automatic updates on my WindowsXP PC, which took place when I shut my computer down after the first session - I am constantly being pestered by the Microsoft Internet Explorer popping up when I connect to the net. When I close the Explorer with the dialog Internet Explorer is your default web browser? Yes, No (or similar) with the no button, it closes, but reappears after a while. This is a real nuisance! ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
I had just written: Since this morning - after 2 automatic updates on my WindowsXP PC, which took place when I shut my computer down after the first session - I am constantly being pestered by the Microsoft Internet Explorer popping up when I connect to the net. When I close the Explorer with the dialog Internet Explorer is your default web browser? Yes, No (or similar) with the no button, it closes, but reappears after a while. This is a real nuisance! Anybody else has experienced this, too? In the meantime during a half hour this happened 4 times. Last time the website http://www.planet49.com/cgi-bin/wingame.pl?partner_pk=607wingame_pk=74sub_id= came up with the Internet Explorer, featuring iMac, iPhone, and iPad, and telling me to choose my gift - and to solve a problem before and submit my data. and 5 minutes later while I am writing this: http://www.freelotto.com/register.asp?skin=Rainbownoepu=1partner=1060965affiliateid= congratulating me to have won 2,087.56 $. Happily my - apparently my somewhat obsolete and slow- virus-detecting program stepped in at that point and I deleted the trojan. Hope this is the end of the story. Sorry to have bothered you with this crap. Regards, Wilhelm Sanke ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
The free program Adaware from lavasoft.com might help. I've used it to clean out malware. --- On Wed, 4/14/10, Wilhelm Sanke sa...@hrz.uni-kassel.de wrote: From: Wilhelm Sanke sa...@hrz.uni-kassel.de Subject: Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying! To: RunRev Ltd use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Date: Wednesday, April 14, 2010, 11:09 AM I had just written: Since this morning - after 2 automatic updates on my WindowsXP PC, which took place when I shut my computer down after the first session - I am constantly being pestered by the Microsoft Internet Explorer popping up when I connect to the net. When I close the Explorer with the dialog Internet Explorer is your default web browser? Yes, No (or similar) with the no button, it closes, but reappears after a while. This is a real nuisance! Anybody else has experienced this, too? In the meantime during a half hour this happened 4 times. Last time the website http://www.planet49.com/cgi-bin/wingame.pl?partner_pk=607wingame_pk=74sub_id= came up with the Internet Explorer, featuring iMac, iPhone, and iPad, and telling me to choose my gift - and to solve a problem before and submit my data. and 5 minutes later while I am writing this: http://www.freelotto.com/register.asp?skin=Rainbownoepu=1partner=1060965affiliateid= congratulating me to have won 2,087.56 $. Happily my - apparently my somewhat obsolete and slow- virus-detecting program stepped in at that point and I deleted the trojan. Hope this is the end of the story. Sorry to have bothered you with this crap. Regards, Wilhelm Sanke ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
Thanks for the various hints! As browsers on Windows I use Firefox and SeaMonkey, the open-source successor of Netscape, the latter on recommendation of our Information Science department. SeaMonkey, like the older Netscape, preserves the unity of web browsing and mail services. Regards, Wilhelm Sanke ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: OT: Microsoft is really annoying!
Sounds like you got some hijacks or some other kind of malware. Look it over with Malware Bytes Anti-Malware. I haven't used Adaware in quite a few years, but it might give you some solutions as well. -- View this message in context: http://n4.nabble.com/OT-Microsoft-is-really-annoying-tp1839949p1840457.html Sent from the Revolution - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
