petef

Great idea! Thanks for all your other replies too. You make good sense. ---pete---

Yeah I hear you. The whole concept of the Media Center seems to have failed. Another I'll conceived concpet by Microsoft. :) If anything is going to act as the "Media Center" it's going to be the gaming system which will act as the device that ties the computer to the TV and entertainent center. The computer can't be the "Media Center" in most homes because it's usually setup in some room far off from the TV set and entertainment center. On the other hand, the GAMING system is almost always located in the same room as the TV so that makes it it the best device for tying all the systems together similar to a media center. ---pete---

Not knowing the nature of your windows crashes it's impossible to tell what might be happening on your system so i'll just make some general comments about Puppy Linux. I'm realtively new to Linux but I've loaded Puppy Linux on probably 20 or more PCs to date with about 95% success rate where it loads to the desktop with no problem. On occasion I've tried loading Puppy Linux or Freespire Linux Live CD, on computers that had Windows installed but were also having hardware problems and what typically happens is it stops loading before it gets to the Linux desktop. So my guess is that you indeed have some kind of hardware problem. The best thing to do with Puppy Linux is to create the CD and test it *BEFORE* you ever experience problems with your Windows OS. This way you know for sure whether it will work or not. Another big lesson I've learned with Linux is not to get too involved with tweeking Linux trying to make it work with your hardware. It's so much easier and less frustrating to adjust your hardware to work with Linux. For example, if it won't recognize & setup a driver for your sound card or network card, it's often eaiser to change the card. Either that, or change the Linux distro. For newbies, I don't recommend struggling with Linux if it won't work with your hardware. Switch to a different Linux distro (version) and see if that solves the compatibility issues. I will say that Puppy has worked successfully with so many desktop and laptop computers that I've tried it on in the past year or so. If you are having problems getting it to boot up, you most likely have a hardware problem or you just need to try selecting a different video mode as it prompts you during the boot up process. If you don't even get that far, you most likely have a hardware problem or else the Puppy CD you burned has errors. As for burning the Puppy CD you should always verify the CD after the burn process is completed using the verify feature in your burner software. It also helps to burn at very low speeds of x4 or less to produce a reliable bootable CD. Another possibility is that the downloaded file has errors and you'd need to DL and burn again. My next suggestion would be to try your Puppy Linux CD in a computer know to be 100% functional in order to ensure the Puppy Linux CD is burned properly. ---pete---

Done! :) http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/dos-me-linux-apple-mac-issues/3240-windows-users-why-you-need-puppy-linux-cd.html#post21589 ---pete---

How to download and run Puppy Linux version 4.0 How to download and run Puppy Linux version 4.0 * Phase 1 - Download and Burn the Bootable Puppy CD * Phase 2 - Run the Puppy Linux CD * Ending and Saving your Puppy Linux Session Phase 1 - Download and Burn the Bootable Puppy CD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1.) Visit the link below and download file... puppy-4.00-k2.6.21.7-seamonkey.iso ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/ Make a written or mental note of the location on your hard drive that you downloaded this file to. 2.) If you already know how to burn a bootable CD using an *.ISO file, then skip to step # 4, otherwise download the free Image Burner program (ImgBurn) from the link below and install it. You will need this program to create the bootable Linux CD. The Official ImgBurn Website 3.) After Installing ImgBurn, burn the bootable Linux CD as follows: * Insert a blank CD-R disc * Start ImgBurn and click.. Write Image File to Disc * For the Source, click the little folder icon and navigate to select file... puppy-4.00-k2.6.21.7-seamonkey.iso * For the destination, select your CD burner drive. * Make sure the check box is checked to VERIFY after the burn. This will ensure no errors and create a reliable CD. * Click large Icons at the bottom to begin the burn. It will only take a few minutes to burn the CD. * Click DONE and exit from ImgBurn. That's it, you now have a bootable Puppy Linux CD. Skip to.. Phase 2 4.) Assuming you already have a CD Burning program and know how to use it to burn a bootable CD using a *.ISO file, burn the bootable Puppy Linux CD at about 4x speed using the file.. puppy-4.00-k2.6.21.7-seamonkey.iso . It will only take a couple of minutes to burn the CD. Exit your CD Burning program and proceed to.. Phase 2 Phase 2 - Run the Puppy Linux CD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1.) Ensure your computer is setup to boot from the CD drive. Note: Don't worry about corrupting operating system already installed on your computer. This Puppy Linux CD runs totally off the CD and in RAM of your computer. It will not effect your current operating system. However, as you exit your Puppy session you will be offered an opportunity to save to your hard drive all your Puppy Linux settings and environment to a single Puppy Linux file. 2.) Insert the Puppy Linux CD and boot to it. Follow the prompts to run Puppy and in just a few minutes you should be at the Puppy Desktop. 3.) If you don't hear the dog barking as the desktop is initially displayed, it means your sound was not automatically setup. If you have a high speed Internet connection on your ethernet port but you don't see the Internet connection Icon (dual monitors icon) down on the taskbar in the far right area, it means your ethernet connection was not automatically setup. If your sound or ethernet connection was not automatically setup then click the SETUP icon on the desktop and use the appropiate wizard to get them setup properly. That's basically it! Enjoy Puppy Linux Ending and Saving your Puppy Linux Session ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Note: Upon exiting Puppy Linux it will offer you various options for saving all your customized settings and environment. It will save any files or program setting you make during the session. If you accept this option to save the Puppy session, start by saving to the default value of 512 mb file space and have it save to the hard drive. This file will simply be stored on your hard drive and will in no way effect your current operating system, other than take up 512 mb of disk space. Next time you boot to the Puppy Linux CD, it will restore all your settings. If you choose NOT to save the Puppy session you will have to repeat the entire setup process next time you run the Puppy CD. Welcome to the world of Puppy Linux! ---pete---

If you run MS Windows as your main operating system you can benefit by having a Puppy Linux CD on hand for emergencies when your MS Windows crashes or needs to be fixed. Some practical uses are listed below: * MS Windows will not connect to the interent and you need to know if it's software or hardware related. You boot to the Puppy Linux CD and connect to internet using the ethernet connection and the built in Seamonkey browser. Now you know your hardware is ok and you can go back to toubleshooting the software in MS Windows. * You performed a malware scan and identified the nasty file that needs to be deleted but your anti-malware program can't delete it. You boot to the Puppy Linux CD, mount the drive, view it's contents, navigate to the file, and delete it. * Your MS Windows fails to startup and you desparately need to get online or check your Web-based Email. You boot to the Puppy Linux CD and use the Seamonkey browser to surf the web and process your Email. * Your MS Windows crashed beyond repair and need your personal data. You boot to the Puppy Linux CD, hookup a USB flash drive or large external USB drive. You mount the Windows drive as well as the USB drive and copy your personal files to the USB drive. * In general, whenever you have a serious problem in MS Windows and don't know if it's hardware or software realted, you can boot to your Puppy Linux CD to see if the same thing occurs in the Puppy OS. If the same problem occurs in Puppy, you know it's hardware related and don't have to waste any time troubleshooting MS Windows software or drivers. Those are just a few reasons why you need your Puppy Linux CD. The next message in this thread will show you how to create your Puppy linux CD. ---pete---

Good point, because all of Mitchell's knowledge on the alien topic comes from second hand information. What this news does do is give some credibility to the notion of a goverment cover up. It does not prove that aliens exist but it does say that that the government has had knowledge of the topic and was not forthcoming with that knowledge and also trying to silence people from telling what they know. Has anyone here ever heard of Bill Cooper? Bill was an amazing guy and claimed to have seen a UFO as well as reports on this topic as a member of the Intelligence Briefing Team of the Commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet. Over the years his opinions changed as to what the objective was behind the entire concept of alien visitors. In the beginning he was a believer that they existed and he wrote about it (see link below for that amazing story), but over time he grew to believe that it was actually a contrived concept with global political motives behind it. Bill had only one leg as a result of being run off the road. He claimed it was by people in government trying to intimidate him from speaking out on a variety of issues. Bill was eventually killed in Arizona a gun fight with law enforcement in year 2001. On this topic of Aliens you can read some of Bill's writings at the links below. I followed the writings and shortwave broadcasts of this guy during the years 1992 to his death in 2001, so I know a good deal about him, in case anyone wants to discuss him and his theories or stories. Even if you don't believe what he writes about it is a fantastic story that is now somwhat validated with the statements made publicly by FORMER NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell. WILLIAM COOPER The Secret Government

I just checked and the one MCE disc and it is a DVD. It's Windows Media Center Edition SP2 To my knowlege, it left the customer's data intact, but understand that the customer never actualy used the media center features of WinXP. So you mat be on to something here, and it has to do with how the MC manipulates the data. I'm not vey familiar with the operation of the MC, as I've never found anyone who actually used it. ---pete---

Check this out. Breaking news from a credible source. Listen to the interview at the website below. ---pete--- Source: LiveLeak.com - Moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell Claims Alien Contact Cover-up Moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell Claims Alien Contact Cover-up Featured "there has been visitation" July 24, 2008 12:01am FORMER NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens exist. And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades.

I fully understand what you are saying but pointers to malware are not the only kinds of registry entries to be concerened about. Registry entries can also disable features or otherwise cause the Windows OS to malfunction. It's very difficult to say which registry entries are benign, which are pointers to a malware file, or which ones manipulate how the OS functions, so I prefer to see all traces of malware removed from the registry. Seth, I know you don't like Spybot, but it has worked well for me in for many years, as long as the TeaTimer is disabled. It's serves as a check on SAS and often picks up malware that SAS misses. Likewise SAS picks up on Malware that Spybot misses, but SAS is the superior scanner. They work well together and I always I run SAS scans first. The real value of Spybot is it's immunize feature which keeps the user from ever gaining access to the thousands of known dangerous websites. The downsde of the immunize feature is that it must be run in each user account in order to protect all the users. This immunize thing is a good topic for another thread. ---pete---

That might be true. I'm still not quite sure what you mean buy that. Can you give me an example of of a consumer installed product that interferes with a specific malware removal technique. Ok, I think this is the main difference and something I've NOT been doing. Up to now, I've never had to slave a drive just to clean it. So I'll take your advise and try this technique next time I get into a jam. In the past, I could often identify the file that the malware scanner was not able to delete and I'd boot to Puppy Linux and manually delete it, but now it seems that things have become more complex. I'll try slaving the drive to clean it and let you know if that makes the difference between cleaning and reformatting/reinstalling the OS. Do you know of any malware scanners that will scan the registry of a slaved drive? ---pete---

Ok, stop right there. Remember the topic of this thread being the newest breed of malware. With the latest breed, the old methods simply won't work. In the case I'm referring to, you can't even install CCleaner or if you did it simply won't run. Some anti-malware programs might install & run but others will not. You have no access to Msconfig or Taskmanager. Ok, with that in mind, what is your procedure? My basic procedure is as follows: * Boot to Puppy Linux and manually clean Temp folders and Prefetch. * Boot to Windows Safe mode and attempt to copy installers from CD to HD. If possible, disable the System Restore and items in MSCONFIG Startup. Then reboot to safe mode. * Safe mode - If I'm lucky, one of the following will install and run..SAS, HijackThis, SDfix, SmithfraudFix. If not, many times Spybot will already be installed and I'll run a scan which will enable the TaskManager. Using Taskmanager, File > New Task, I'll attempt to install SDFix, SmithfraudFix, ComboFix, or any of a variety of Vundofixers. When SAS fails, one of these others will usually clean the system well enough to be able to proceed to the next step. * Install & update SAS and perform a complete scan. * Use SAS repair featues to fix the various problems with the Desktop, Explorer, or whatever. * If I couldn't access MSCONFIG before, now I should be able to disable items in MSconfig Startup and reboot PC. * Update & run the Virus Scanner that may already be installed or unintall any inferior Virus scanner and install NOD32 to do the scan. * Depending upon all previous results, I may run an online Scanner but I don't resort to that too often. If SAS operates normally, I'll also install and run a Spybot scan which usually detects a some registry entries that seem critical that SAS missed. * Install HijackThis and remove selected items. * Exercise the system by browsing to a few websites using Internet Explorer and also run Windows Explorer to browse some folders. Reboot the PC to normal mode. * Repeat all scans until they all come up clean. If SAS keeps detecting the same critical malware I'll run SdFix, or SmthfraudFix or Combofix. * Visit AOL.com and ensure the mail link operates. This is just a simple test to ensure the encryption features of IE are still functioning. * Test various applications and Windows features to see if any collateral damage has occurred as a result of the malware or the cleaning. Note: This is my basic procedure, but it seems that each infected PC is different, so I can't say I do it exactly the same way each time because of so many complications and varied conditions. There are various other things I may or may not do and it all depends upon my results as I proceed through each step. ---pete---

Yes, that is possible, I just did one the other day. It just takes longer to perform than a regular XP repair. Towards the end, it reports that it's installing applications and wants you not to do anything while it continues. I've only done a couple of Windows Media Center Edition reinstall repairs and they both took a very long time to complete. My guess is that it took about 1.5 to 2 hours. The shame is, when I question the customer about their Media center usage, none of them are using it's special features. So it's all a big waste. PS: Just to clarify, I performed one MCE repair using the recovery partition (HP PC) and one using the MCE CD (Dell PC). ---pete---

The system was coming up clean per scans and I can't recall the exact details but I think Windows was operating properly. Kaspersky identified the file.. explorer.exe. Prior to that, explorer.exe was being reported by Windows as not being found, so I assume it was replaced when I performed the Windows repair installation, only to become infected again as evident by Kaspersky's alerts. All this was after performing 6 hours of scan and various cleaning, and it just wasn't worth anymore time to troubleshoot. It was more of an experiment to see if cleaning was possible or even practical. ---pete---

Thanks for the tips. When SAS fails me, I'll run SDFIX, SmthFraudFix or various "VundoFixers" and that's been very effective, but in recent weeks the malware is even stopping them from running, so I'm in search of some new tools or methods. You have confirmed that slaving the infected HD is now becoming necessary. So it's also becoming much more difficult to impossible to do the cleaning at the customer's home. Seth, I had one this past week where with great diffficulty I was able to gain control of the system and perform multiple scans with SAS, and NOD32 to clean it. It appeared clean and I even performed a WinXP repair install afterwards to try to restore any damage to the OS. I then inststalled Kaspersky Internet Security which alerted me to the fact that Explorer.exe was infected and attempting to perform processes on other appications. Wow, I was quite impressed with Kaspersky, but it's too complex for the average user. Anyway, I wound up running other cleaners and spent in excess of 6 hours throwing every trick I know at this probem only to finally give up and reformat & reinstall Windows. In all the years of malware cleaning, I've never seen such sophisticated and difficult malware. Now when I run SAS and see Vundo, Virtumonde, Smithfraud, or SpywareLocker coming up I'm thinking that it's going to be easier and more efficient to just wipe and reload if the PC does not have a lot of data to deal with or lots of applications or peripherials installed. If I find this happening often I might begin running SAS Quick Scan for the initial diagnosis in order to decide whether to clean or whether to wipe and reload. ---pete---

Just this past week I had one where SAS's repair that always worked in the past now failed to fix the problem. I speaking about the Enable Task Manager repair that even Spybot is capable of fixing. When I saw that SAS couldn't fix it I said to my self, Oh boy now we are in trouble becasue the malware seems to be aware of SAS and it's blocking it's counter measures. It's becoming a real cat and mouse game. ---pete---

Yeah, that's unfortunate, but it was bound to happen. To be fair to Norton & McAfee when they became the most popular antivirus apps they also became a target to the bad guys creating the malware, so naturally they had to increase the size and complexity of the apps in order to defend against all the counter measures of the malware. I suspect that this is what contributed to them to becoming big bloated resource hogs. I hope the same fate is not destined for SAS as it becomes more and more popular. Again, this might be another reason to have the malware cleaners running in a separate OS such as Linux to clean a Windows OS as this method would be much more immune to any counter measures of the malware. ---pete---

I agree with all the points made and the reality is that it's getting tougher to clean an infected PC so new tools and techniques will need to be developed in order to clean them. Already, I'm noticing that porgrams like NOD32 and SAS that run in Windows can't do the cleaning but the ones that run in a CMD window such as Smithfraud Fix and SdFix are more effective at cleaning. Now this latest breed of malware is rendering those CMD window type apps useless, so what's next? I'm already using Puppy Linux to clean Temp files and the Prefetch when Windows won't allow me access to delete files or folders. I'm starting to think in terms of a new breed of malware *cleaners* that may need to be developed. One approach might be to run a live Linux OS that performs the scans to delete any infected files and even manipulate the Windows Registry, all from a remote OS run totally in RAM. I think this is the direction we are headed towards for cleaning an infected PC. ---pete---

I had a couple of PCs within the last week, where I was able to perform scans with NOD32, SAS, Smithfraudfix, SDFix, and HijackThis. The system finally up clean but windows was damaged to the point where certain programs would no longer run or the Windows Desktop was just a blank screen. I performed a Windows XP repair installation and even that did not restore things back to normal. This new breed of malware is like nothing I've seen before. Typical symptoms can include some or all of the following: * No access to Control Panel, Regedit, or Taskmanager. * Desktop screen suddenly flashes (about every 10 seconds) goes blank and then displays the icons, while terminating or interfering with any process you were currently trying to startup or use. * Windows Explorer will open, but will not function to allow copying of installlation files need for cleaning. * Attempts to run special antimalware cleaning software such as SmithfraudFix, ComboFix, VundoFix and others fail. They either terminate themselves or show up as a process running but they don't actually do anything. * The often used Repair functions of SAS now fail to perform where with previous malware they did work as expected to fix things. * Desktop backgound is changed. * Windows Screensaver or Desktop background funtions do not operate. * Windows repair install fails to restore normal operation even though all the malware scans come up clean. Up to a couple of weeks ago, I was usually able to find a special malware cleaning tool to clean and fix the computer, but more recently I'm winding up reformatting and reinstaling Windows. I'm hoping that some new malware cleaning tools will be released to combat this new breed of malware. ---pete---

To my way of thinking, it's my responsibility to decide early on whether to clean or whether to reformat and reinstall the OS. If I make the mistake of trying to clean and I spend 3 hours doing so, only to wind up starting over and reformatting, then I might charge up to 1 hour for initial diagnostics and eat the other 2 hours wasted going in the wrong direction. Then charge as normal for the reformat and reinstall. I'm beginning to recognize certain types of symptoms and certain kinds of malware as indicators that cleaning is going to be too difficult. However, I also view it as a challenge and I've spent up to 6 hours trying to find ways to clean this new breed of malware. In a case like that, I eat the entire 6 hours and just charge my normal fees for reformatting and reinstalling the OS. ---pete---

I think it boils down to one basic concept. Is there a single God that created the universe and is the story of creation told in the Holy Bible true? If that's all true, then it is indeed possible that the entire universe was created solely for man. If it's not true, then it's likely that man and life on earth happened by sheer accident and that the same could occur elsewhere in the universe. I also believe that if we begin findiing evidence of life similar to humans throughout the universe it would have the power to collapse religions as we know them today. I'm not a particularly religious person, but I do recall reading something in the bible that predicted a time when man would worship the "created" (earth, animals & universe?) more than the creator (God). I just did some research to locate that chapter in the bible and came across these few passages listed below. If this is indeed a predition of the future written in biblical times, I find it quite fasinating. From the book of Romans in the Bible, chapter 1: 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. ---pete---

I've been successfully cleaning malware infested PCs for years in my computer service business but in the past few months I've had to format and reload Windows on a large percentage of cutomer's PCs. Most times it's due to malware named.. VUNDO, VIRTUMONDE, SMITHFRAUD, and SPYWARELOCKER. I use a combiation of cleaning methods and utlities.. NOD32, AVG, SuperAntiSpyware, Spybot, SDFIX, SmithfraudFix, various Vundo scanners, ComboFix, and HijackThis, in addition to manual cleaning of Temp files & Prefetch performed using Puppy Linux. In the past couple of months I'm using every trick in the book at the malware infested PCs of my customers and it's getting much more difficult to impossible to clean them. More recently I'm coming across infected PCs that won't let me even install the software needed to clean them. I'm finding that installed scanners won't even run. The symptoms vary from PC to PC and no 2 are exactly the same. I had one PC that seemed to clean up but the desktop was left completely blank with no desktop icons and no task bar/menu bar. ***WARNING - LATEST BREED OF MALWARE IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CLEAN***** TO ALL USERS, HEED THIS WARNING AND PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE NEWEST BREED OF MALWARE AND BACKUP YOUR IMPORTANT DATA TODAY! BACKUPS ARE YOUR ONLY TRUE DEFENSE. WHILE YOUR SYSTEM IS STILL OPERATING PROPERLY GO BUY A GOOD DRIVE IMAGING BACKUP SYSTEM LIKE ACRONIS OR NORTON GHOST AND BACK UP YOUR ENTIRE HARD DRIVE. ************************************************************** In the meantime we techs need to band together and share any new techniques that are effective at cleaning this new breed of malware. One tip I can offer when you find yourself locked out of most XP features is to first find a way to enable the TaskManager. Spybot scan will do it or use SuperAntispyware's Repair options to re-enable Taskmanager. Then use TaskManager's File > New Task feature to browse to the program you need to run to install or run your anti-malware software. ---pete---

Yeah, I hear ya. Most I would probably do then is to remove the battery or and press the power button to "drain" it and replace the battery. I'd also toggle the floopy drive off and on in the BIOS if they offered an option to do that. ---pete---

I've seen floppy dirives that were bad where ther green light flashed as you described. We know it's not likely a cable problem if the drive worked properly before the lightning strike. If you already tried other drives and they acted the same then the problem is due to something on the motherboard. Now we are down to what caused the problem as a result of lightning. Either the Mobo got "confused" or it got damaged. If reset of the BIOS/CMOS settings (as AdvancedSetup suggested) does not fix it then the FDD controller on the Mobo is bad. ---pete---

Sounds like the FDD controller on the Mobo has been damaged. ---pete---