RandyL

Hi frannie; Nice to see you at ExtremeTech.support - Free PC Help. Maybe you can show us a thing or two. Five sons, what a handfull. I'll bet they kept you busy with everything including computers. In any case we're glad you're here. RandyL

Hi Charlene; Glad to see you here at ExtremeTech.support - Free PC Help. Everyone here will do our very best to help should you need assistance. After all we don't want to get growled at by the big bad Wolfey. RandyL

Well since it's a used computer I always suggest to reinstall the OS anyway. DSL on Windows 95? Don't waste your time trying. RandyL

Welcome to ExtremeTech.support - Free PC Help heckler. We look forward to having you here. Well put AdvancedSetup.

If you have IE6: Open Internet Explorer. From the Tools menu, Click Internet options. Click on the Content tab at the top. In the Personal information section click AutoComplete. You can clear the AutoComplete history from here by using the Clear Forms tab and Clear Passwords tab. If you had AutoComplete set to save addresses you typed in the address bar and want to clear those, you might have to clear History from the General tab. RandyL

Also to change the settings for AutoComplete in IE7: Open Internet Explorer. From the Tools menu, Click Internet options. Click on the Content tab at the top. In the AutoComplete section click on Settings. Select your choices. Click OK. Click OK Good luck; RandyL

Hi tony and welcome to ExtremeTech.support - Free PC Help; The feature you are talking about is called AutoComplete. In Internet Explorer 7: Open Internet Explorer. From the Tools menu, click Delete Browsing History. Click the Delete button under Form Data. Click Yes to confirm your actions. Click Close. If you're using IE6 pleast post back; RandyL

Hi maynard; Look a few of these over and see if there's anything you like. http://www.pagetutor.com/index.html http://webtips.dan.info/ http://www.htmlclinic.com/index.php http://www.draac.com/ http://www.davesite.com/webstation/html/ http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/ http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp http://www.htmlgoodies.com/ http://www.webreference.com/html/tutorials/ http://www.idocs.com/tags/ http://www.ironspider.ca/index.htm http://www.thesitewizard.com/ http://werbach.com/barebones/ http://www.webmonkey.com/ Have fun; RandyL

Hi Judie; How do i cancel my AOL account? http://help.aol.co.uk/how-do-i-cancel-my-membership/article/20060901041509990017 Further options for cancelling your account (if you cannot dial the Member Services number). http://help.aol.co.uk/how-do-i-cancel-my-membership/article/20060901041509990017 This is a soundbyte. Funny. http://www.unoriginal.co.uk/footage97_2.html RandyL

Hi heckler; This might just be a bad connection somewhere. Possibly inside the case. Or it could just be a bad speaker wire. The hardware people should be on shortly so hang on. RandyL

Hi judie; There are many opinions on this. As maynard said check out the link by seth. Antivirus-antispyware- firewall (xp has a firewall which is enabled by default with the latest service pack although it's not my first choice). Which programs are you considering? That would help with individuall opinions. Glad to see you want to secure your system. Good move. On a side note based on your other posts you're still with AOL. You can use their branded version of Mcafee for an antivirus which I think is still free. I don't recommend that you stay with AOL or their software however. Completely removing AOL components can be problematic. Since you just did a full recovery now is the time to consider a new ISP as well as security options. If you are already on AOL again then some of the above would be obvious or not relevant. What I'm saying is they have some of their own security software but I'm not a fan. Removing any such software completely including AOL itself can be problematic. Choose wisely. RandyL

Hi judierudie; You do not have to be held hostage by AOL. If you want to cancell your AOL account and have problems we and millions like us would be happy to assist. RandyL

Hi manard; I don't normally do hijackthis logs. Seth does so wait for him. Offhand I don't see anything suspicious. Is the machine running better? Did you get all the Windows updates to install? RandyL

I don't know. I have seen it before but didn't know what to make of it. Is there a $ sign or something next to the files. It seems to me AdvancedSetup may have mentioned something about such files. Let's see if he posts about that. In the mean time we still have to determine if your system is clean then fix the damage so you can install the Windows Updates. All the techs here will do their best to help in this thread. But based on all your other posts this machine is infected badly with trojans and the Windows Updates is a classic issue. It really might be better to do a destructive recovery and reinstall Windows. After backing up everything first of course. That's up to you but the time put into it may be more practical. It's your choice as to which direction you choose to go. Backing up everything is a major issue too. The reinstall issues depend on your computer and what disks you may have. Let us know what you have achieved so far and what options you want to consider. RandyL

Hi maynardvdm; I would look to remove any suspicious programs from add/remove first. Then also run Housecall from TrendMicro an online scan. http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ Next run SuperAntiSpyware. http://www.superantispyware.com/ Then turn System Restore off. Then turn it back on to remove any hidden programs from reinstalling from there. The next thing I do is run every single scan again just to be sure. The reason I said to remove suspicious programs from add/remove first is that some of those programs may have come bundled with spyware or adware. Even if you remove the malware that came with them it might reinstall at the next internet connection. I've seen it happen many times. P2P, some free downloaded games and some free screensavers come to mind as well as some Browser Helper Objects (BHO). And of course prevent future infections with a working antivirus, antispyware and firewall. And educate the user on the dangers. I know you don't want to keep going through this for them. Good luck; RandyL

Good idea AS to provide the Version Test link. That should confirm Dotty's version and anyone elses version who comes across this thread. RandyL

Hi maynardvdm; I've used both and they appear to do equally well. Try one then the other to see if it picks up anything else. Later reverse the order. The only thing I use is the cleaner setting at the top in ccleaner. I don't recommend at all using the registry cleaner in it as regestry cleaners are inheritantly troublesome. RandyL

Hi AS; 9r115 is the latest 9,0,115,0 version. If there is an update for that version then hopefully it will install the update once a clean copy is installed. I agree the security patches are important. RandyL

Hi people; Follow AdvancedSetups instructions above as that usually fixes the issue. I have to ask you though did you see this when you tried to install it. "When you see the installation completion movie above and text below, your installation was successful." If you didn't see the text or movie after attempting to install and still didn't after following the instructions above then try downloading the stand alone installer and run it. I have seen a few computers that it would not install from the web site. Turning off the firewall and antivirus, changing the settings in IE, uninstalling the Flash Player etc. didn't help. But I could get it to install from the saved file. Try the above steps first. To install from file uninstall per above post. Download the latest version here. http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14266&sliceId=2 Unzip the file and navigate to the 9r115 folder for the latest version. Double click the "flashplayer9r115_win.exe" file. Be warned the above download is over 75MB. RandyL

Hi maynard; Look through some data bases to see if you can find some answers. Here is one. http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php As for me I usually start with the startup_exe file here. http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm Besides it's a good place to learn about the basics. Depending on the computer some items should stay or go. As such you should consider all items in msconfig>startup to determine if there are other issues such as malicious programs. If no one answers I'll try to comment on your specific items when I get away from the grandkid tomorrow.

Hi Pat. Glad you found your way to FPCH.

How about some tech support funny links? http://pebkac.ubergoth.net/luser/ http://rinkworks.com/stupid/ And one last computer link. http://www.anvari.org/fun/Computer/ Enjoy; RandyL

Hi dee; Check out this kba from Microsoft. Part 8. Sharing a Printer. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814005 RandyL

Hi new; Welcome. everyone here will do their best to help you. RandyL

Hi new; From what I gather you can't boot into Windows or Safe Mode. Also you are given the choice at bootup to perform a System Restore which when chosen leads you to a blank desktop. By blank I assume you mean a blue or black or backround image with no taskbar showing. Am I correct on one of these? Upon furthur reading can you clarify what you mean when you say “I have tried system restore with no luck”. The point being we need to know exactly what your options are at this point. RandyL