HI8RJX

Enable Remote Desktop Connection on Vista Home Premium

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:40:00 +0000

Enable Remote Desktop Connection on Vista Home Premium

I have now made a patch zip file for Vista SP1 32bit available here: http://www.unet.fi/fransblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/termsrv_sp1.zip (hope it works for you, it did ok for my Home Premium SP1. However, note that I am not the original author of this hack, and can not offer any detailed technical help if something goes wrong; use only on your own responsibility, etc. Note that this does NOT work for the 64bit Vista.)

There are many nice, but also quite many really irritating aspects to Windows Vista. Some are due to Microsoft intentionally crippling their own products. One of the most tiresome has been the disabling of Remote Desktop Connection. If you have to run down the stairs every time to check whether a particular process has ended or not, it gets old really quick, and double so when you realise that Vista Home Premium actually includes fully-featured Remote Desktop service, it is just broken by design. Here are the instructions to turn it back on — thanks a lot, guys!

Steps to Add Remote Desktop to Vista Home Premium:

1. Download termsrv.zip here
2. Extract Termsrv.zip to a temp directory
3. Start “Command Prompt” in Administrator mode (Run As Administrator)
4. Run the corresponding batch file for your Vista edition
5. Allow TCP Port 3389 on Windows Firewall or any other firewall product.
6. Done.

How do I add to the Send To menu in Vista?

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 05:20:00 +0000

QUESTION:
This one has me stumped. I like to use the Send To option in the right-click menu but I want to add other locations other than the ones there by default (Mail, Desktop, Documents, etc.). In XP I could just make a shortcut in the Send To folder. When I try to do that in Vista, or just open it, I get a message that says "Access Denied." What am I doing wrong? Is there a trick to it? Thanks. - Michael S.
ANSWER:
I'm betting that you're trying to access the Send To "folder" that's in your profile folder (your user name right under the Desktop in the Windows Explorer file tree). The problem is that's not a real folder at all; it's just a pointer to the real one - which resides on the drive where Vista is installed, which is buried deep down in the path: Users \ \ AppData \ Roaming \ Microsoft \ Windows \ SendTo
You can open and add shortcuts to the real folder. The other "Send To" is one of many pointers that Vista puts there for the use of applications that are used to finding folders at those locations in XP. You'll note that, unlike the real folders, they have shortcut arrows to indicate that they're not the "real thing." However, if seeing them there drives you nuts, you can hide them by checking the "Hide protected operating system files" in the Tools | Folder Options | View dialog box. That option is checked by default, but many experienced Windows users uncheck it when they first set up the operating system.

How to copy the full path of a file or folder to the clipboard

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 05:18:00 +0000

If you're deep in the file system and want to copy the full path of a file or folder to the clipboard so you can paste it, it's easy if you know the trick. Here's how:

In Windows Explorer, navigate to the file or folder in question.
Hold down the Shift key.
Right click the file or folder.
From the enhanced context menu, select Copy as Path.

The Shift + Right Click combination adds other options to the context menu, as well.

Universal Remote Control Codes

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:04:00 +0000

Miscellaneous

Remote Central ⁽³²⁾
Site for high-end programmable remote controls. Includes reviews, files, forums and more.

Remote Central's Uploaded Manuals ⁽³²⁾
Contains hundreds of manuals uploaded by users.

Troubleshooting and Repair of Hand Held Remotes
Tips for repairing and maintaining remote controls.

AT&T

AT&T 200 ⁽⁴⁾
PDF manual.

AT&T 200B ⁽¹⁾
Set-top cable box.

AT&T 200C ⁽¹⁾
Set-top cable box.

Beery Systems, Inc.

Tune In! ⁽²⁾
User guide, including setup instructions.

Bondwell

BW-5020
Partial list of codes.

Comcast

Comcast DVR 3-Device ⁽⁴⁾
PDF remote manual.

Comcast 3 in 1 Universal Remote ⁽⁴⁾

Comcast Remote Overview ⁽⁴⁾
Provides a list of remotes used by Comcast and links to their instruction manuals. Try code 0451 for White Westinghouse TVs.

Comcast OnDemand 3-Device ⁽⁴⁾
PDF remote manual.

Comcast On Demand Custom 3-Device Universal ⁽⁴⁾
PDF instruction file.

Cox Communications

Cox Cable Remote Control List ⁽⁵⁾
Various remotes used with the Cox Cable system.

More Cox Remotes ⁽⁵⁾
Includes Cox Digital Interactive, Universal DVR, Navigator, Millennium and Model ER1 PDF manuals.

Cox Universal Remote ⁽⁵⁾
Cox Universal Remote by Universal Electronics.

CheckMate IV ⁽⁵⁾
Model RT-U49E universal remote.

CheckMate IV ⁽⁵⁾
Model RT-U49C universal remote control.

Scientific Atlanta Remote Codes ⁽⁵⁾
SA2000 universal remote codes.

Atlas DVR/PVR 5-Device
Cox DVR remote by Universal Electronics.

M7820 Universal Remote
Cox DVR remote by Universal Electronics.

Curtis Mathes

Various Models?
User submitted general instructions that may pertain to various Curtis Mathes modes.

DISH Network

User Guide List ⁽⁸⁾
Links to receiver and remote control user guides.

General DISH Codes ⁽⁴⁵⁾

Dish Remote Codes ⁽⁸⁾
Direct link to codes for Dish remotes.

Emerson

User-submitted Codes

GE

GE Universal Remote Codes ⁽¹⁴⁾
Links to PDF and Word document instruction and code files.

GE/Jasco Model Remotes ⁽¹⁴⁾
Various GE remote models.

How to Program a GE Universal Remote Control ⁽¹⁰⁾

DirecTV Receivers ⁽⁷⁾
Models: GRD33G2A and GRD33G3A.

RM24912 Instructions
PDF instruction file.

RM24912 Code List
PDF code list.

Gemini

Quik20
Codes search instructions.

Quik30
Instructions and code list.

Quik50
Instructions and code list.

Quik50 ⁽⁴⁸⁾
Programming instructions and codes

General Instruments

See Motorola

Hughes

DirecTV Receivers ⁽⁷⁾
Models: HDVR-2, HAH-SA, HBH-SA, HIRD-B1, HIRD-B2/B3/B4/C2, GAEB0-GCEB0, GAEB0A-GCEB0A, GXCEBOT, HIRD-D01/D11, HIRD-D2, HIRD-D25, HIRD-D45, HIRD-E1/E2, HIRD-E4, HIRD-E6, HIRD-E86, HTL-HD, SD DVR40, SD-HBH.

Innovage Products

Jumbo Universal Remote
PDF Instruction Manual for this oversized remoted.

inVoca

inVoca
PDF manual for the inVoca voice-activated remote.

iWave

iWave Super-Sized Universal Remote
User-submitted instructions and codes.

JVC

JVC Service ⁽¹⁷⁾
Search for your component's model number.

JVC-1623
VCR Remote.

Remote for XV-S500BK/XV-S502SL DVD Player ⁽¹⁷⁾
PDF manual for remote control that comes with the XV-S500BK or XV-S502SL DVD players.

Jasco

Various GE/Jasco Remotes ⁽¹⁴⁾

Jensen

Various Models ⁽¹⁵⁾
Mouse over the Home icon and select Universal Remotes. Covers the following models: JR300, JR400, JR500, JR800

SC-300 Series
PDF code file for models SC-310, SC-320, SC-330, SC-340, and more?

SC-330, SC-331, SC-340
PDF user manual.

SC-540
Programming Instructions PDF (~3MB).

JR300C, JR400C, JR500C
PDF instruction manual and codes for JR300C, JR400C and JR500C Jensen remotes.

Kenwood

Kenwood USA Web Site ⁽¹⁸⁾
Currently under construction, Kenwood is reworking their site.

RC-R0609
Codes for the remote that comes with the 503 home theater.

Magnavox

Various Models? ⁽²¹⁾
Some Magnavox remotes reportedly only accept 3 digits (i.e. 0035 would be 035), try that if all else fails.

Magnavox Support ⁽¹⁹⁾
Search for your model.

Alternate Programming Instructions
User submitted.

Philips-Magnavox PM525S
PDF manual. Identifying mark on the remote may be inside the battery compartment: HE016. This manual may work for a number of Philips-Magnavox remotes.

Philips-Magnavox PM725
PDF instruction manual.

Philips Magnavox REM 250 ⁽⁴⁷⁾
PDF manual.

Memorex

Memorex VR3
PDF file containing codes.

Memorex VR4
Also reported to work with VR3 and AV6.

Memorex 4 Plus
PDF manual for the Memorex 4 Plus. May also work with the 3 Plus.

Mitsubishi

DirecTV Receivers ⁽⁷⁾
Models SR-HD5 and SR-SDI.

Motorola

DRC-400/425 ⁽²³⁾
PDF instruction file.

DRC-450 ⁽²³⁾
PDF instruction file.

DST-400
PDF instruction manual with codes.

DRC-800 ⁽⁹⁾
PDF remote manual for DRC800 4-in-1 universal remote control.

NRTC

DirecTV Receivers ⁽⁷⁾
RCA model instructions may also work.

One For All

Various Models ⁽²⁵⁾
Includes the Topline, Zapper, One Shot, Trendline, Prime, Signature, One For All, Lite, Kameleon, Mosaic, Easy models and more.

Official Sites ⁽²⁵⁾
List of official One For All web sites.

Total Control URC-4140
PDF Instruction Manual (remote also known as Crest URC-4140)

URC-XXXX Remotes ⁽²⁸⁾
Lists a number of URC-XXXX models.

URC-XXXX Models ⁽²⁸⁾
Mirror of the old One For All site.

The Director ⁽²²⁾
Remote codes for The Director advanced touch remote. This appears to be the same as the Mosaic touch screen remote.

Panasonic

Online Operating Instructions ⁽²⁶⁾
Instructions for televisions, VCRs, etc. - look for your model of TV or VCR and find the online instructions that include the remote codes.

DirecTV Receivers ⁽⁷⁾
Models listed: TU-IRD10, TU-IRD20, TU-HDS20, TZ-DBS01, TZ-DRD100.

EUR511170B
Codes for Panasonic EUR511170B and perhaps others.

Philips

DirecTV Receivers ⁽⁷⁾
Models listed: DSHD800, DSR 660, DSR 7000-17, DSR 704/708, DSX-5150, DSX-5250, DSX-5350, DSX-5353, DSX-5375, DSX 5500/5540.

Philips-Magnavox PM525S
PDF Manual. Identifying mark on the remote may be inside the battery compartment: HE016. This manual may work for a number of Philips-Magnavox remotes.

Philips-Magnavox PM725
PDF instruction manual.

Philips-Magnavox REM 250 ⁽⁴⁷⁾
PDF manual.

PMDVD6 Universal Digital DVD
Instructions and codes for PMDVD6 Universal Digital DVD 6 Device learning remote.

Philips PM335 Manual
PDF remote manual. You will also need to download the codes. The instructions may also work for the PM435.

Philips PM335 Codes
PDF file containing remote codes. May also work with PM435.

Philmore

PM-RC8
PDF instruction manual for the PM-RC8 remote.

Pioneer

Pioneer Universal Remote

Proscan

DirecTV Receivers ⁽⁷⁾
Models listed: PRD8630A, PRD8650B, PS61000.

RCA

Remote Control Finder ⁽³¹⁾

Various Codes ⁽⁴²⁾
Various RCA universal remote codes.

General RCA Codes ⁽²¹⁾

DirecTV Receivers ⁽⁷⁾
Models listed: DRD + DTC Models (and more).

CRCU500
PDF file with codes.

SystemLink3 ⁽²⁷⁾
Admiral TV alternate code: 047.

SystemLink 3 (aka RC300E and RCU300) ⁽³¹⁾
PDF manual.

SystemLink3 Programming
User-submitted programming instructions.

SystemLINK4
User submitted instructions for SystemLINK4.

SystemLink 6
User-submitted code search instructions.

RCA SystemLINK Code Search Instructions
Reported to work with models 3, 4+, SL5 and maybe more.

RCA SystemLINK3
PDF instruction manual (~2MB).

TRCU500 (aka SystemLINK 5) ⁽³¹⁾
PDF file with codes.

VR651HF VCR Remote
Rich Text Format (RTF) file with codes.

RCU1000B ⁽³¹⁾
Touch screen remote PDF file.

RCU404 ⁽⁴²⁾
Instruction manual (PDF). For Insignia TVs try 062.

RCU404
Code search instructions.

RCU800 ⁽³²⁾

DBS-D770
PDF manual for RCA remote that comes with some direct broadcast satellite (DBS) systems.

RCR460
PDF file containing codes.

Radio Shack

Various Models ⁽³⁰⁾
Lots of info on at least the following models - look here for any Radio Shack universal remote: Six-In-One, Three-In-One, Easy VCR Programmer, Five-In-One, Light-Up, Itza-Remote, Pocket Remote, 3-in-1, Phone Up 4, Eight-In-One, Four-In-One, 6-in-1, 7-in-1, and more.

Various Remotes ⁽²⁹⁾
Models Listed: ITZA 2, ITZA 2000, 2-in-One Universal, 3-in-One Pocket, 4-in-One, 4-in-One Light Up, 4-in-One Smart Light Up, 6-in-One Smart Audio, 7-in-One IR/RF, 8-in-One Touchscreen.

Four in One (#15-1904A)

Recoton

Jensen/Recoton went into bankruptcy and the video accessories division was purchased by Thomson Electronics. Unfortunately the original Sole Control website is no longer active. You can try contacting Thompson Electornics or their subsidiary company RCA for information.

Web Archive of solecontrol.com
Some pages of the old Sole Control web site mirrored at the web.archive.org internet archive.

Sole Control SC-440 Auto Search
Instructions submitted for using the auto-search feature of the remote.

Sole Control SC-300 Series European Version
PDF file with codes for European version of Sole Control remotes from Recoton UK. Product specs are different than US versions. Models Listed: SC-310, SC-315, SC-320, SC-330, SC-340.

Sole Control SC460, SC460R and DSC460
PDF instruction manual.

Remotec

Various Models
Manuals for various Remotec remotes including model BW0329, BW5310, BW6110, BW6120, BW6130, BW6378 and more

ReplayTV

ReplayTV ⁽²⁸⁾

Samsung

Samsung Support Site ⁽³³⁾
Click on your component, look for the manual for your model.

DirecTV Receivers ⁽⁷⁾
Models: SIR-S60W, SIR-S70-75, SIR-TS160, SIR300-310W, SIR-S4120R, SIR-TS360.

Sanyo

Sanyo Service ⁽³⁵⁾
Click on REMOTE CODE & PROGRAMMING link to list and search for remote models.

Starlight Universal/Multimedia ⁽³⁴⁾

B21208
Comes with the Sanyo VHR-H619 VCR. Also reported to work with Sanyo B21309 remote.

RMTU-100

Sharp

Sharp USA Support ⁽³⁸⁾
Enter your model number to search for manuals.

Remote for VC-H982 VCR
Also reported to work with the VC-H952, VC-A582 ,VC-H965, VC-H812 and VC-H818.

Remote for SD-SP10
PDF codes and programming instructions for the remote that comes with the SD-SP10 audio system. The remote model number is RRMCGA086AWSA.

Sole Control

See Recoton.

Sony

General Codes and Instructions ⁽⁴⁰⁾
General instructions and codes for Sony remotes. Check here if your model is not listed below or does not contain complete instructions.

Sony eSupport
Sony's main support site, enter or select your remote model.

RM-V8 ⁽¹¹⁾
May also work with RM-V7.

RM-V12 Setup
Extra instructions for the RM-V12 using codes from the RM-V8.

RM-V10
Instructions from Sony Internet.

RM-V11
Also reported to work with RM-V10A.

RM-V15 ⁽²¹⁾

RM-V18A
Instructions from Sony Internet (also reported to work with RM-V14).

RM-V21
Instructions from Sony Internet.

RM-V22 ⁽⁴¹⁾

RM-V40A
Instructions from Sony Internet (also reported to work with RM-V60).

RM-Y102
Instructions from Sony Internet.

RMT-D109A

RM-Y119 and RM-Y117
May also work with RM-Y118.

RM-Y165
Also reported to work with RM-Y135, RM-Y154, RM-Y167, RM-Y168, RM-Y169, RM-Y170, RM-Y171, RM-Y181, RM-Y186, RM-Y902, RM-Y906, RM-Y144, RM-Y180.

RM-Y135
Also reported to work with RM-Y136A and RM-Y137A.

RMT-D109A

RM-PP404
Remote that comes with the STR-DE545 home entertainment system.

RMT-V231B
Also reported to work with RMT-D102A (Sony DVD), RMT-109A, RMT-D116A, RMT-D120A, RMT-158C, RMT-D185A, RMT-V201A, RMT-V203, RMT-V229, RMT-V231A, RMT-V232C (Sony VCR), RMT-V266, RMT-V306, RMT-V307, RMT-V402, RMT-V504A

RM-V201
PDF instructions.

RM-V202
PDF instruction manual.

RM-V301 and RM-V401

RM-V301
PDF instruction manual.

RM-V302 Instructions
PDF instruction file.

RM-V302 Codes
PDF code list.

RM-PP505
PDF instruction manual.

RM-VL700 Instructions
PDF instruction file.

RM-VL700 Code List
PDF code list.

RM-VL900

RM-LP204 and RM-LP204M
PDF instruction manual.

RMT-D153a

DirecTV Receivers
Models listed: HD100, SAT-A1, SAT A2/B2, SAT-A4/B3, SAT-A50/B50, SAT-A55/B55, SAT-A65/B65, SAT-A65A/B65A, SAT-HD200, SAT-HD300, SAT-T60, SAT-W60.

Sylvania

6220VA VCR

TeleMania

STAR TREK Phaser Universal Remote
PDF user manual for Star Trek: The Next Generation phaser remote.

Toshiba

Owner's Manuals ⁽⁴⁶⁾
Links to PDF versions of the owner's manuals to many components.

Models listed: DST-3000, TSR101, TSR202. ⁽⁷⁾
Models listed: DST-3000, DW65X91, TSR101, TSR202.

TV Guide

TVG3301 Page 1

TVG3301 Page 2

TVG3301 Page 3

TVG3301 Page 4

Universal Electronics

Note: See the Cox and One For All sections for more possible remote codes.

Various Cable Remotes ⁽⁴⁹⁾
Models listed: Atlas, Mundial, Millennium, Navigator, Scout, Control.

Mosaic ⁽²²⁾
Remote codes for the Mosaic Touch Screen Control.

General Codes ⁽²⁸⁾
Codes for most UEIC, One For All, and Radio Shack remotes.

Little Easy
One For All "Little Easy" remote instructions.

US Electronics

Various Remotes ⁽⁵⁰⁾
Codes and instructions for most US Electronics remote control models.

UMTVRD3

Westinghouse

Westinghouse LCD TV Remotes ⁽⁵¹⁾
Includes the following models and possibly more: LVM-42w2, LVM-37w1, LTV-32w1, LTV-32w3 HD, LTV-30w2, LTV-27w2, LTV-27w6 HD, LTV-32w7 HDC, LTV-40w1 HDC

X10

Universal Remotes ⁽⁵²⁾
Various X10 universal remotes, including: MouseRemote, SuperREMOTE, 8-in-1 Learning Remote, UltimateRemote, TV Buddy, Platinum Remote, 5-in-1 Learning Remote, Entertainment/DVD/MP3 Anywhere Remote.

UR74A
PDF code list.

Yamaha

Yamaha Remotes ⁽⁵³⁾
Search for your model.

RX-V995 AV Receiver Remote ⁽²⁰⁾

Zenith

Allegro

Allegro MBC4030/MBC4035, Zenith MBC4430 ⁽²⁰⁾

PCC III

General Zenith Codes ⁽⁵⁴⁾
Should work with later model Zenith remotes, search for your model.

More General Zenith Codes ⁽⁴²⁾

ZEN100-700
PDF file with codes for models: ZEN100, ZEN300, ZEN350, ZEN400, ZEN425, ZEN450, ZEN525, ZEN700, ZEN725, ZENDTV

ZN405S / ZN411
Manual for ZN405S and ZN411 remotes.

DIRECTV Receivers ⁽⁷⁾
Covers DTV1080 and HD-SAT520.

Universal Remote Control Codes

Convert DVD to MKV HD video to keep the high quality

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:14:00 +0000

Convert DVD to MKV HD video to keep the high quality

Many people complain that when they convert DVD to video and watch it on laptop or PC the quality get bad. Why this happens?
An ordinary DVD movie is often 7-8 GB in size, if we convert them to ordinary video formats the size would be hundreds of MB, so We have to face this problem that the code compress process would destroy most of unimportant data and the video quality get bad. How do we resolve this issue?
We can decrease the damage by converting DVD to MKV and other HD video formats. These HD videos are often bigger than standard video and keep high quality.
OK, let’s discuss it in details:
1. What’s MKV HD video?
2. How to convert DVD to MKV to keep the high quality?
(You can also learn how to convert MKV to AVI and other videos from this guide.)
3. How to play MKV HD video on Windows media player?
Part 1: What’s MKV HD video?
An MKV HD video file is a Matroska file, the Matroska Multimedia Container is an open standard free Container format . It is similar in conception to other containers like AVI, MP4 or ASF, but is entirely open in specification, And the size is often much more bigger than common video for the HD code methods.
Part 2: How to convert DVD to MKV HD video to keep the high quaity?
Here I listed a few good DVD to MKV converters I found on google, They all have good output quality, can input DVD disk, DVD folder, IFO, ISO and support MKV HD video, but you can select a better one with special feature for your needs.
Aimersoft DVD ripper
This DVD to MKV converter has been upgrade recently and added MT2S, TS, TP, TRP and MKV HD video formats into its output formats.
Important features:
1. Convert DVD to MKV, MP4, WMV, AVI, FLV, MOV, 3GP, 3GPP, MPG, RMVB, Xvid, ASF, WMA, M4A, MP3, AAC, OGG, MKA, AC3, WAV. ( Available for iPod, iPhone, PSP, Zune, etc)
2. Editing function: video cropping, trimming and effect adjusting;
3. Subtitle and Audio track select.
4. Chapters and Clips selecting, so you can choose any part of the DVD to convert and “merge into on file”.
5. Conversion speed: 58 minutes. (DVD: Kungfu Panda).
HQ DVD To MKV Converter
This is a specialized DVD to MKV converter, the output format supports only MKV, a DVD to MKV converter for the people who have owned other DVD converters but not include MKV video in their outputs and the price is cheaper than other comprehensive DVD rippers.
Important features:
1. Convert DVD to MKV only.
2. Subtitle and Audio track select.
3. Conversion speed: 1 hour 18 minutes (DVD: Kungfu Panda)
Avaide dvd ripper
Important features:
1. Convert DVD to MKV, AVI, WMV, MP4, FLV, MOV, MPG, 3GP, MP3, AAC, OGG, WMA for iPod, PSP, Zune, etc.
2. Chapters selecting; Time trimming to select any part of the DVD.
3. Conversion speed: 1 hour 37 minutes. (DVD: Kungfu Panda)
In summarize, if you already got one comprehensive DVD converter but doesn’t support MKV format, HQ DVD to MKV converter ($19.95) can help you save more $; Aimersoft DVD ripper ($35) has the fastest conversion speed and more editing function for users; Of cause, if you don’t care too much about these two features and want to spend less dollars Avaide dvd ripper ($29.95) is also a good choice for the same good output quality.
OK, choose one to convert DVD to MKV HD video, then I will tell you how to play MKV in Windows Media Player.
Part 3: How to play MKV on Windows media player?
Many people who download a HD video file with the extension MKV will often try to play it back with video player software they have installed on their systems. Most of the time this doesn't work.
As it is based on DirectShow Windows Media Player will play back MKV HD video files perfectly if you have the proper codecs and filters installed. A great help here is the Matroska Pack. This pack is an ideal solution for new users as it installs pretty much all you will need to play MKV HD video files.
You can get more details and download the Matraoka Pack from its official site:

http://www.matroska.org/

Finally, I’m not a expert in digital area, so some resources in this article were collected from other professional site such as Wikipedia.com and afterdawn.com.
Any valuable advices would be great. Enjoy ;)
Keywords: DVD to MKV, MKV, HD video, convert DVD to MKV

Convert DVD to MKV HD video to keep the high quality »

Hacks n' Tips

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:06:00 +0000

How to free disk space, by deleting hibernation file in Windows Vista
Every time you put your Windows Vista loaded computer, into hibernation, it creates a file called ‘hiberfil.sys’. This file uses your entire physical memory and grows its size, every time you hibernate your system. Hence you may want to delete it to free up some hard drive space. Follow this procedure to delete this file.

1. Click on Start, go to All Programs, then Accessories, choose System Tools, and then click on "Disk Cleanup".

2. You would be prompted to choose the drive you want to clean up. Then select the drive in which Windows Vista is installed and press OK.

3. Disk Cleanup will start scanning the hard drive and present you with a list of options.

4. Check "Hibernation File Cleaner", and then press OK.

5. When asked "Are you sure you want to permanently delete these files?" click on the Delete Files button.

You will end up with some more free disk space.

How to Disable Hibernation in Windows Vista

If you do not use hibernation mode or your system does not support it, you may want to disable the same. Follow below steps:

Method I

1. Log on as Administrator.

2. Start the Command Prompt and then type: powercfg -h off

3. Press Enter.

Method II

1. Click Start > All Programs > and then right click on ‘Command Prompt’.

2. In the context menu choose ‘Run as administrator’.

3. If ‘User Account Control(UAC)’ prompts you to allow the action, click on Continue.

4. Follow Steps 2 and 3 given above.

How to Auto-Logon in Windows Vista(Warning: Security Risk)

If you are tired of entering your username and password every time you want to logon to your system, you may want to enable the Auto-Logon option in Window Vista. However note that this is not recommended due to the security risk involved. Follow the step below:

1. Click on Start and type ‘netplwiz’, it will be immediately listed under Programs list in the Start menu.

2. In the User Accounts window, select the user name and then uncheck the ‘Users must enter a username and password to use this computer’ checkbox.

3. Click on ‘Apply’.

4. A new dialog box will be popped up and you will have to type in the password for your account. If your account is not protected with a password already, then leave it blank.

5. Click on OK

Dominican Republic Repeaters

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 05:29:00 +0000

How to Disassemble a Compaq Armada M700 Laptop

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:25:00 +0000

<For a Dear Friend of mine>

How to Disassemble a Compaq Armada M700 Laptop

Disclaimer

Warning: The following instructions are given without any warranty. They don't have to be complete or correct. Don't do any of the following steps if you're not sure of what you're doing. You could damage your notebook and you WILL lose your warranty. Everything you do will be at your own risk.

The System

I think it's best to start with a few words about the system itself. In this Compaq Armada M700 works a Pentium II processor with 366 MHz. It has 128 MB RAM, a DVD drive and a 14,1" display.

First steps

It is really important to remove the accumulator and all other power connections. It is also a good idea to remove the DVD drive / floppy disk drive.
Mind that the notebook consists of various screws! Not every screw fits in every hole.

Disassembling

HDD

Removing the HDD is really easy: Remove the single screw in the centre of the underside of the notebook and pull out the HDD. Ready.

Modem

There are two screws at the left-hand side of the bottom of the notebook. Remove them and open the cover. Now you can easily remove the modem by lifting the one side of it, which was next to the HDD. Now pull out the two remaining wires and you're done.

Keyboard

Removing the keyboard is easy, too. There are four little holders at the top of the keyboard (between ESC and F1, F6 and F7, F12 and PageUp, Ins and Del). Pull them back and you can lift the top of the keyboard. Be careful, there are two wires, which can easily be broken. You can remove them from the mainboard. Pull up the upper side of the plugs. They will take off a few millimetres, which will loosen the cables. Now you can remove the wires without any violence.

RAM

After removing the keyboard you can see the RAM. It's the green thing with black chips on it at the left side. You can lift up one side as shown in the picture. Now it's easy to remove the RAM.

Display

There are four screws at the backside of the M700. - Remove them. Then fold up the notebook as far as possible. Now you can remove the plastic ledge between the display and the keyboard. There are three cables which go from the motherboard to the display. You can remove them by pulling the plug out of the mainboard. Now it is possible to pull the display out of the rest of the notebook.

Cover

Under the plastic ledge you just removed are three screws. - Remove them. Then turn around the laptop and remove further six screws. Turn it around again and separate the upper part from the lower part of the case. The best place to do it is at the backside of the system. It is a bit fast, but it works. Be careful, there are four wires from the upper part to the lower part of the case. Don't damage them! You can easily pull them out. Now you divided the case of your notebook into two parts.
Important: The little plastic cover of the infra-red adapter is loose now. Don't lose it!

Graphic card

The graphic card is the thing which is wrapped into black tape at the centre of the mainboard. Just pull it up. That's it!

Mainboard

Removing the mainboard is a bit more complicated:

Disconnect the cable you see in the hole, where the modem was in.

Remove the upper RAM bank by pulling it up and remove the screw underneath it.

Remove all eight screws from the backside of the notebook. Use pliers.

Disconnect the cable near the USB port.

Remove the screw near the USB port and remove the small part of the mainboard which provides the TV-Out ports and the USB port.

Remove the two screws at the left and right side of the PCMCIA ports. Remove the remaining screws which hold the mainboard.

Grab the serial port at the backside of the notebook and lift it up. There is a connector which will loose.

Now you can pull out the mainboard.

Removing the CPU cooler

Disconnect the plug near the RAM banks. Turn around the mainboard and remove the three screws underneath the CPU. Get rid of the triangle, too. Don't lose the wearing parts underneath the screws! Now you can remove the whole CPU cooler including the fan. Don't touch the white thermal compound, which was on the CPU.
If you want to open the cooler, just loose the screws.

Put it together again

You disassembled your notebook successfully, now you can put it together on your own. The photos on this site might help you. Remember: Violence is not necessary and there are several kinds of screws. Good luck!

[ -> back to top ]

Codigos Postales Dominicanos

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:23:00 +0000

Dominican Republic Zip Codes

Código Postal Dominicano

Regiones

Distrito Nacional | Este | Norte | Cibao Central | Norcentral
Noroeste | Del Valle | Enriquillo | Valdesia

Distrito Nacional

Nuevo Distrito Nacional
10100 a 10699

Santo Domingo Oeste
10700 a 11199

Santo Domingo Norte
11200 a 11499

Santo Domingo Este
11500 a 11999

Inicio

Este

San Pedro de Macorís
21000

La Romana
22000

La Altagracia
23000

El Seibo
24000

Hato Mayor
25000

Inicio

Norte

Duarte
31000

Samaná
32000

Maria Trinidad Sánchez
33000

Salcedo
34000

Inicio

Cibao Central

La Vega
41000

Monseñor Nouel
42000

Sánchez Ramírez
43000

Inicio

Norcentral

Santiago
51000

Espaillat
56000

Puerto Plata
57000

Inicio

Noroeste

Valverde
61000

Monte Cristi
62000

Dajabón
63000

Santiago Rodríguez
64000

Inicio

Del Valle

Azua
71000

San Juan de la Maguana
72000

Elías Piña
73000

Inicio

Enriquillo

Barahona
81000

Bahoruco
82000

Independencia
83000

Perdenales
84000

Inicio

Valdesia

San Cristóbal
91000

Monte Plata
92000

San José de Ocoa
93000

Peravia
94000

Inicio

Remove Invalid Listings from Add/Remove Programs

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:59:00 +0000

Remove Invalid Listings from Add/Remove Programs

There are a number of reasons why an application may remain in the Add/Remove Programs list long after the application is gone from your computer. One of the most common reasons is using the uninstaller from the listing on the All Programs section of Start Menu, but whatever the reason it remains there are ways to remove the invalid listing.

Method I: This method avoids editing the registry and should be tried first.

The easiest way is to open Add/Remove Programs and select the listing for the program you know has already been deleted. Select the application and click the Remove button. Since there is no application to 'remove', the process will time out and you'll be presented with an option to remove the entry.

Method II: This method involves editing the registry. Make sure to have a verified registry backup before editing the registry. Help with backing up the registry is available here.

Select Start > Run

In the Open: line type regedit and press Enter.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

The Add/Remove Programs list is built from the keys listed beneath the Uninstall folder.

Locate the key for the program that has been uninstalled, right click the key and click Delete.

Clicking the keys in the left pane and looking at the information provided in the right pane can help in identifying the associated programs. Err on the side of caution in this operation. Once the key has been deleted it's impossible to use Add/Remove Programs to uninstall if you make an incorrect selection.

How to install and use the Windows XP Recovery Console

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:55:00 +0000

What is the Recovery Console?

How to install the Recovery Console to your hard drive

How to start the Recovery Console

Remove the prompting of a password

How to use the Recovery Console

Deleting the Recovery Console

What is the Recovery Console?

The Recovery Console is a special boot up method that can be used to help fix problems that are preventing your Windows installation from properly booting up into Windows. This method allows you to access the files, format drives, disable and enable services, and other tasks from a console prompt while the operating system is not loaded. It is suggested that the Recovery Console is to only be used only after Safe mode and the other standard startup options do not work. I feel that the Recovery Console is also useful in other situations such as removing malware files that start in both Safe mode and Standard Mode and thus not allowing you to delete the infection.

This tutorial will guide you through the installation of the Recovery Console and how to use it. For those who are familiar with DOS or the command prompt, you will find the Recovery Console to be very familiar. For those who are not comfortable with this type of environment, I suggest you read through this primer in order to get familiar with this type of interface:

Introduction to the Windows Command Prompt

How to install the Recovery Console to your hard drive

I recommend that you install the Recovery Console directly onto your computer so that if you need it in the future, it is readily available. The Recovery Console only takes up approximately 7 megabytes so there is no reason why you should not have it installed in case you need it.

To install the Recovery Console on your hard drive, follow these steps:

Insert the Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM drive.

Click the Start button.

Click the Run menu option.

In the Open: field type X:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons , where X is the drive letter for your CD reader, and press the OK button. An image of this step can be found below:

After pressing the OK button a setup window will appear similar to the one below.

Simply press the Yes button to continue with the installation of the Recovery Console. The setup program will then attempt to do a Dynamic Update to make sure you have the latest files as shown below.

Simply allow it to continue and then when it is finished, you will be presented with a screen similar to the one below telling you so.

Press the OK button and remove the CD from your computer.

Now when you start your computer you will have an option to start the Recovery Console.

How to start the Recovery Console

To start the Recovery Console when it is installed on your hard drive you would do the following:

Reboot your computer and as Windows starts it will present you with your startup options as shown in the figure below.

With the arrows keys on your keyboard select the option listed as Microsoft Windows Recovery Console and press the enter key on your keyboard.

The Recovery Console will start and ask you which Windows installation you would like to log on to. If you have multiple Windows installations, it will list each one, and you would enter the number associated with the installation you would like to work on and press enter. If you have just one Windows installation, type 1 and press enter.

It will then prompt you for the Administrator's password. If there is no password, simply press enter. Otherwise type in the password and then press enter. If you do not know your password then see this.

If you entered the correct password you will now be presented with a C:\Windows> prompt and you can start using the Recovery Console.

Proceed to How to use the Recovery Console.

To start the Recovery Console directly from the Windows XP CD you would do the following:

Insert the Windows XP cd in your computer.

Restart your computer so you are booting off of the CD.

When the Welcome to Setup screen appears, press the R button on your keyboard to start the Recovery Console.

The Recovery Console will start and ask you which Windows installation you would like to log on to. If you have multiple Windows installations, it will list each one, and you would enter the number associated with the installation you would like to work on and press enter. If you have just one Windows installation, type 1 and press enter.

It will then prompt you for the Administrator's password. If there is no password, simply press enter. Otherwise type in the password and then press enter. If you do not know your password then see this.

If you entered the correct password you will now be presented with a C:\Windows> prompt and you can start using the Recovery Console.

Proceed to How to use the Recovery Console.

Remove the prompting of a password

When the Recovery Console starts it will ask for your Administrator password before continuing. In many cases when you have XP pre installed on your computer the Recovery Console will not recognize your Administrator's password. In these situations it is possible to edit a registry setting so that the Recovery Console does not ask for a password. This setting works on both Windows XP Home and Pro editions.

To change this setting do the following:

Click on the Start button.

Click on the Run option

Type regedit.exe in the open field and press the OK button.

Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Setup\RecoveryConsole

Change the value of SecurityLevel value to 1

Close regedit

Reboot your computer.

Now the Recovery Console will no longer ask for a password.

How to use the Recovery Console

Though the Recovery Console looks similar to a standard command prompt it is not the same. Certain commands work, while others do not, and there are new commands available to you. There is no graphical interface, and all commands must be entered by typing them into the console prompt with your keyboard and pressing enter. This may be confusing for those who are not familiar with this type of interface, but after doing a few commands it does becomes easier.

The following is a list of the available commands that you can use in the Recovery Console. When using the recovery console you can type help followed by the command to see a more detailed explanation. For example: help attrib.

Command

Description

Attrib
Changes attributes on a file or directory.

Batch
Executes commands that you specify in the text file, Inputfile. Outputfile holds the output of the commands. If you omit the Outputfile parameter, output appears on the screen.

Bootcfg
Allows you to modify the Boot.ini file for boot configuration and recovery.

CD
(Chdir) Change directory. Operates only in the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources.

Chkdsk
Checks a disk for drive problems or errors. The /p switch runs Chkdsk even if the drive is not flagged as dirty. The /r switch locates bad sectors and recovers readable information. This switch implies /p. Chkdsk requires Autochk. Chkdsk automatically looks for Autochk.exe in the startup folder. If Chkdsk cannot find the file in the startup folder, it looks for the Windows 2000 Setup CD-ROM. If Chkdsk cannot find the installation CD-ROM, Chkdsk prompts the user for the location of Autochk.exe.

Cls
Clears the screen

Copy
Copies one file to a target location. By default, the target cannot be removable media, and you cannot use wildcard characters. Copying a compressed file from the Windows 2000 Setup CD-ROM automatically decompresses the file.

Del
(Delete) Deletes one file. Operates within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources. By default, you cannot use wildcard characters.

Dir
Displays a list of all files, including hidden and system files.

Disable
Disables a Windows system service or driver. The variable service_or_driver is the name of the service or driver that you want to disable. When you use this command to disable a service, the command displays the service's original startup type before it changes the type to SERVICE_DISABLED. Note the original startup type so that you can use the enable command to restart the service.

Diskpart
Manages partitions on hard disk volumes. The /add option creates a new partition. The /delete option deletes an existing partition. The variable device is the device name for a new partition (such as \device\harddisk0). The variable drive is the drive letter for a partition that you are deleting (for example, D). Partition is the partition-based name for a partition that you are deleting, (for example: \device\harddisk0\partition1) and can be used instead of the drive variable. The variable size is the size, in megabytes, of a new partition.

Enable
Enables a Windows system service or driver. The variable service_or_driver is the name of the service or driver that you want to enable, and start_type is the startup type for an enabled service. The startup type uses one of the following formats:
SERVICE_BOOT_START
SERVICE_SYSTEM_START
SERVICE_AUTO_START
SERVICE_DEMAND_START

Exit
Quits the Recovery Console, and then restarts the computer.

Expand
Expands a compressed file. The variable source is the file that you want to expand. By default, you cannot use wildcard characters. The variable destination is the directory for the new file. By default, the destination cannot be removable media and cannot be read-only. You can use the attrib command to remove the read-only attribute from the destination directory. The option /f:filespec is required if the source contains more than one file. This option permits wildcard characters. The /y switch disables the overwrite confirmation prompt. The /d switch specifies that the files will not be expanded and displays a directory of the files in the source.

Fixboot
Writes a new startup sector on the system partition

Fixmbr
Repairs the startup partition's master boot code. The variable device is an optional name that specifies the device that requires a new Master Boot Record. Omit this variable when the target is the startup device.

Format
Formats a disk. The /q switch performs a quick format. The /fs switch specifies the file system.

Help
If you do not use the command variable to specify a command, help lists all the commands that the Recovery Console supports.

Listsvc
Displays all available services and drivers on the computer.

Logon
Displays detected installations of Windows and requests the local Administrator password for those installations. Use this command to move to another installation or subdirectory.

Map
Displays currently active device mappings. Include the arc option to specify the use of Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) paths (the format for Boot.ini) instead of Windows device paths.

MD
(Mkdir) Creates a directory. Operates only within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources.

More/Type
Displays the specified text file on screen. More will display a text file one page at a time, while Type displays the entire text file at once.

Rd
(Rmdir) Removes a directory. Operates only within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources.

Ren
(Rename) Rename a file or directory. Operates only within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources. You cannot specify a new drive or path as the target.

Set
Displays and sets the Recovery Console environment variables.

Systemroot
Sets the current directory to %SystemRoot%.

Deleting the Recovery Console

Warning: To remove the Recovery Console you need to modify the Boot.ini file. Modifying this file incorrectly can prevent your computer from starting properly. Please only attempt this step if you feel comfortable doing this.

To remove the Recovery Console from your hard drive follow these steps:

Double-click on My Computer and then double-click on the drive you installed the Recovery Console (usually the C: drive).

Click on the Tools menu and select Folder Options.

Click on the View tab.

Select Show hidden files and folders and uncheck Hide protected operating system files.

Press the OK button.

Now at the root folder delete the Cmdcons folder and the Cmldr file.

At the root folder, right-click the Boot.ini file, and then click Properties.

Click to clear the Read-only check box, and then click the OK button.

Click on Start, then Run and type Notepad.exe c:\boot.ini in the Open: field and press the OK button.

Remove the entry for the Recovery Console. It will look similar to this:
C:\cmdcons\bootsect.dat="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
Make sure you only delete that one entry.

When you are done, close the notepad and save when it asks.

Right click again on the boot.ini file and select Properties.

Put a checkmark back in the Read-only checkbox and then press the OK button.

The recovery console should now be removed from your system.

--
Lawrence Abrams
Bleeping Computer Advanced Microsoft Tutorials
BleepingComputer.com: Computer Help & Tutorials for the beginning computer user.

The evil genius of XP Antivirus 2008

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:41:00 +0000

Anatomy of a malware scam

Use Combofix to resolve this problem (next topic)

Anyone who has a blog has probably seen blog spam; comments to the blog that simply try to entice people to go to some other site. Most of the time the site being advertised is simply trying to boost its search engine rankings to generate more ad revenue.

The more links there are to a site, the more popular the search engines figure it is, and the higher up in the search results it ends up. Blog spam, therefore, is frequently thought to be a good way to boost the search engine rankings. In some cases this turns malicious. Some sites engage in wholesale intellectual property theft to boost their rankings (https://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/archive/2007/12/20/idthieves-org-and-its-ilk-are-unauthorized-blog-mirrors-stealing-intellectual-property.aspx).

A few of weeks ago, however, I started noticing something far more insidious. I moderate all comments to my blog. This is something I started years ago to keep the blog somewhat family friendly, and to avoid propagating malicious content. Recently I also completely disabled trackbacks to avoid boosting the search engine rankings for sites that steal my work. This means I see every comment that comes into my blog. The other day I noticed one that contained nothing more than a link to a fake Google site: google-images.google-us.info/index.html.

This looked very suspicious to me so I made a note of it. Over the next several weeks I noticed a lot more of these, not only pointing to Google but also to Yahoo and MSN. The servers they pointed to all had the same basic structure, such as google-homepage.google-us.info, msn-us.info, yahoo-us.info, etc. Every one resolves to the same IP address: 124.217.253.8. That IP address is registered to Piradius.net in Singapore. The server appears to be hosted out of Kuala Lumpur. The domains, however, are registered in Ukraine:
Registrant Name: ermua 

Registrant Organization: santa banta 

Registrant Street1: lenina str. 43/67 

Registrant City: Kiev 

Registrant State/Province: 

Registrant Postal Code: 0444 

Registrant Country: RU 

Registrant Phone: 044.763238 

Registrant Email: yura_gpz@mail.ru
Domaintools.com confirms this. You will soon see a related domain, xpantivirus.com. That one is registered to Chebotarev Oleksandr, in Odessa, Ukraine (http://whois.domaintools.com/xpantivirus.com). This had me very curious and I wanted to know more about what this site was attempting to achieve. Consequently, I fired up a virtual machine and started investigating. What I found was an interesting tale of trickery.

The First Hint

The first thing a potential victim would do is open up one of the sites. For my tests I used www.msn-us.info. I did my initial test on Windows Vista. After various trickery, I got the dialog in figure 1.

Figure 1 The site issues a redirect to a different site

Notice the chrome in Internet Explorer. My virtual machine is running Windows Vista. The popup, however, has the XP chrome. As it turns out, the popup is not a popup at all. The whole page is just one image, hyperlinked to a file download. I must give the criminals here credit for graying out the background to lend it credibility; a la Vista User Account Control (UAC). One of the questionable benefits of UAC is that it has conditioned people to believe that as long as the screen background is grayed out they can trust whatever is on the screen.

Before the popup in the screen shot there was actually another one too. That one was an animated GIF that looked like it was performing a virus scan of your computer. Needless to say, it found several pieces of fake malware on my computer, hence the dire warning in the fake popup.

If this looks suspicious to you, it should. We are not on www.msn-us.info. We are on virus-securityscanner.com. When you go to any of the sites that are linked in the blog comments you download a few files, and then it redirects you to http://virus-securityscanner.com/2008/3/freescan.php?aid=880421, where the last part is some form of identifier that we will return to shortly.

Similar sites to this one have been reported at least as far back as 2003. The modus operandi does not change, although the exact details of what the sites do seem to. It appears likely that these sites are all related and that there are multiple fronts for them. Virus-securityscanner.com appears to be hosted at an ISP in Pennsylvania at the time of this writing, but that is likely to change by the time you read this. In fact, between the time I started researching this and the time I wrote the article, the site name had changed to virus-onlinescanner.com.

Workflow Step By Step

At this point I was sufficiently curious to walk through the work-flow step by step. You may enjoy what I discovered. Starting from the beginning, when I first went to www.msn-us.info I received the warning in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Initial warning

It is quite nice of them to warn me about malware. It's also nice that they are offering to solve all my problems for free. Note also that I repositioned the dialogs in Figure 2 so you can better see what is happening. Without doing that the very small web browser window is actually hidden behind the dialog to make it look as if the dialog is coming from your computer, not a web page. If you click "OK" in figure 2, you get figure 3. If you click cancel, it just goes directly to a download for a fake anti-malware program.

Figure 3 The malware is independently certified

The warning in figure 3 just lets you know that you are about to download something. Obviously the criminals are well aware that users are incredibly desensitized to warnings and the more warnings they get, the less they pay attention to them. Click OK in that warning, and you get the page in Figure 4.

Figure 4 Fake Scan Results

Figure 4 is the same as Figure 1, but this time with the proper chrome as this virtual machine was running Windows XP. It turns out that the malware actually failed to install on Windows Vista (no, I did not file a bug with the authors to get that fixed), so I went back to Windows XP for my testing.

The page in Figure 4 is mostly just a composite of several images. The scan itself is a javascript that draws the progress bar. The file list that it iterates through when it performs the fake scan is a list of 1,100 names in a file called fileslist.js. That file also contains the 14 fake pieces of malware that it "discovers."

The warning dialog itself is a GIF image called popup3.gif. Virtually all areas of the page, including popup3.gif, are linked through an on-click event to a function called onloadExecutable(), which looks like this:
function onloadExecutable()
{
dat=new Date(1214372723);
var dlth=dat.getHours()-dat.getUTCHours();
rrc = 1;
location.href="../_download.php?aid=880421&dlth="+dlth;
};
This function does nothing more than trigger a download by setting the location of the browser to a script that initiates a download. The use of this design makes it harder to track down what they are doing since most forensics tools, such as wget, do not execute javascript. The objective, however, is quite clear: you are prompted to download something. The aid parameter is going to be appended to your download name as a version number. The time parameter does not seem to be used at all.

One very interesting behavior of popup3.gif is that the fake close button is actually linked to a special warning. If you click that button, you get the warning in Figure 5.

Figure 5 Closing one warning brings up another

If you click OK in Figure 5 it runs the onloadExecutable() function. If you click cancel or close it throws another warning, shown in Figure 6. That warning will run onloadExecutable() no matter what you do; whether you click the OK button or the red X to close it.

Figure 6 Closing that warning brings up one that gives you no options

Therefore, no matter what you do, you will be prompted to download a file. The file is: http://virus-securityscanner.com/2008/download/XPantivirus2008_v880421.exe. The v880421 part of the file is a fake version number which bubbled all the way from the original page. It does not seem to change very frequently. However, I tried a few hundred different numbers surrounding 880421 and most resulted in a valid download. Disturbingly, they all seem slightly different. It is possible that download.php runs the file through an obfuscator, but more than likely they have a few hundred different obfuscated versions of the same malware sitting on the server.

After downloading the file, I sent it to virustotal.com, a site that scans files on demand using a large number of reputable commercial anti-malware engines. The results varied a little depending on the day I tried it and which version of the file I sent them. For example, on June 24, only GData and Kaspersky detected the current version as malware. A version just a day older was also detected as malicious by AntiVir, eSafe, Sophos, and Webwasher-Gateway. The actual malware contained in the file is the Trojan-Downloader.Win32.FraudLoad.gen downloader trojan

Installing the Malware

The malware is actually quite well written, looking very professional. The installer starts out with a notification shown in Figure 7. It includes what appears to be a Windows compatibility logo, fake of course, and has a link to the terms and conditions.

Figure 7 The installer looks very professional

The terms and conditions also look very professional. A snippet is shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8 The malware comes with terms and conditions

The license agreement looks about like what you would expect from commercial software. Interestingly, however, it seems exclusively focused on the website, not on the software you are trying to install. It even tries to restrict how you can provide links to their site. That alone should be a reasonable hint, providing anyone actually ever reads license agreements.

The agreement also provides a link to the support site for the malware. A portion of the help file is shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9 The malware has everything, including a help site

Once you know this is malware, the help site is almost comical. It has information about bug reporting, conspicuously lacking an actual method to submit bug reports. It makes it clear how much you will be charged to install the malware, and even uses the boilerplate language about how safe it is to submit your credit card to them because no criminals will be able to read the encrypted transmission; until it reaches the criminals who asked for it, of course. There is even a link to an online support forum, shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10 The malware has a support forum

The support forum looks well done, with mostly well designed graphics and the requisite list of cryptic malware names you find in the support forums for all anti-malware software. This list of malware is, of course, fake. However, it gives a nice view into what other sites might be associated with the same gang of criminals. Antispywareboss.com, antivirus-2008-pro.com, securityscannersite.com, winantispyware2008.com, and xpsecuritycenter.com are just some of the sites advertising solutions to W32.Trojan.Downloader.s. In fact, 411-spyware has a thread on that particular fake threat (http://www.411-spyware.com/remove-w32-trojan-downloader-s).

Sending Your Money to the Bad Guys

If you chose to actually pay for the software you will be directed to https://secure.software-payment.com. That site is hosted out of Bridgetown, Barbados. According to several websites, software-payment.com appears to be a bit of a favorite among those pushing fake anti-malware. This forum thread (http://www.temerc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=3430848) has a list of other fake anti-malware that used it for their billing services.

The software costs $49.95, as shown in Figure 9. However, when you try to register it you are also offered an upgrade to File Shredder 2008, for only $39.95. It is not clear whether that upgrade destroys your data only locally, or whether, for that fee, the bad guys will destroy your data securely on their own servers after they use it to steal your identity and your money. You may also add premium support for $24.95.

What It Installs

The first thing you will notice after installation is that you are presented with the Windows Security Center, shown in Figure 11; except that it actually is not the Windows Security Center.

Figure 11 Fake Windows Security Center

Figure 11 shows a fake Windows Security Center. It looks very much like the real thing, shown in Figure 12 on the same computer, at the same time, for comparison purposes. Note that the real one does NOT detect the malware as a legitimate anti-virus program. The primary differences are twofold. First, the recommendations link in the fake one is linked to a dialog that will try, once again, to make you purchase the fake anti-malware. In the real one, it links to a help document explaining how to obtain anti-malware software.

Figure 12 Real Windows Security Center

The fake Windows Security Center also has a list of resources on the left hand side. However, all of them are linked to documents that entice you to pay for the malware. In the real one they link to real help files. It is likely that the criminals created the fake Windows Security Center so they could control exactly what you saw when you clicked on anything in it and link it to the ubiquitous purchase screen. The real Windows Security Center is still present on the computer. Notice the Control Panel in Figure 13.

Figure 13 Fake Windows Security Center in the Control Panel

The real Windows Security Center is the one called just "Security Center" in the Control Panel. The fake one is the one called "Windows Security Center." In addition, the fake one identifies itself as "Windows Security Center" in the system tray. The real one identifies itself as "Security Alerts." It is probably safe to say that most users would be hard pressed to conclude that the real one was not the one called "Windows Security Center." Once again, it is a matter of telling real from fake, and in this case, unfortunately, the real thing, while there, is not very good at identifying itself as the real thing consistently.

If you leave the computer alone for a few minutes you will eventually get the first of many many popups of various kinds, shown in Figure 14.

Figure 14 The first of many warnings

The warning in Figure 14 is yet another attempt at getting you to send your money to the criminals. If you click the "Remove all threats now" button it will take you to a purchase screen. Interestingly, the "Continue unprotected" button does not take you there, breaking with the previous history. If you use that button you will start getting system tray popups. An example is shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15 One of several different scary looking system tray warnings

The malware uses several different system tray warnings. Another one is shown in Figure 16.

Figure 16 Another system tray warning

Interestingly, while virtually everything else the malware has shown us so far has been in flawless English, the system tray popups have grammatical mistakes and missing prepositions. More than likely this is indicative of collusion within a criminal gang to create the malware. The software and all the associated collateral is far too complex to be written by a single person in a reasonable time, so the source is likely a gang. The individual that wrote the system tray popups apparently did not receive the grammar tutorial the others did. Or, maybe, the system tray popups just were not part of the user acceptance testing plan.

At regular intervals you also get a strange corner popup, shown in Figure 17.

Figure 17 A corner popup

The corner popup also shows up in the region of the system tray but is just a window. It has an "Update Now" button that takes you to the purchase site. Once again, the malware is specifically designed to entice you to pay for it.

The application itself looks reasonably good. Figure 18 shows the main application window during a "scan."

Figure 18 A scan of your system obviously finds many fake infections

If you compare Figure 18 to your average legitimate anti-malware suite you would probably be inclined to agree that this looks perfectly legitimate to most people. It finds bad stuff, which is good, and the bad stuff is sufficiently scary sounding to make me want to get it removed, even if it costs me $49.95, plus the File Shredder 2008 license. Just in case that was not enough to entice me to purchase the malware, however, we also have the system status screen in Figure 19, which is designed to frighten you into compliance. By now you can probably guess where the "Update Now" button goes. There are at least four buttons in Figure 19 that lead to the "send us your money now" website. One can only marvel at how much better the criminals are at separating you from your money than the legitimate anti-malware vendors.

Figure 19 The System Status screen is designed to be scary

Interestingly, in my testing, the malware did not actually take any malicious action beyond what I have documented here. I did not detect any attempts at stealing data, at installing additional malware, or at remote control. This could be for several reasons. The purpose may just be to get some of your money, and maybe a credit card number. Alternatively, it may be that the software is time-triggered to make it harder to analyze. Most analysts do not have the luxury to let it run continuously for weeks whereas the bad guys can easily wait that long for the payout. Finally, the software may include detection logic to discover that it is running in a virtual machine, causing it to forego some of the malicious actions it otherwise would. Such logic is becoming more common in malware as it makes it far more difficult for researchers to analyze the software.

Detection by Legitimate Software

As a final experiment I decided to see if I could remove the malware, or at least detect it, with legitimate anti-malware software. At first I attempted with the recently updated Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (from June 24, 2008, the most recent available at the time I wrote this). It failed to detect the software.

Fortunately, other anti-malware software did detect it. Figure 20 shows the warning from AVG Free (http://www.grisoft.com) when you attempt to open the Control Panel applet. AVG Free also threw a similar warning when I downloaded the installer.

Figure 20 AVG Free detects the malware on open

AVG also detects the other vectors installed by the malware and very efficiently removes them for you, as shown in Figure 21. I did not test with any other anti-malware software. As the test results on Virus Total showed, the malware would probably be missed by at least some legitimate anti-malware software.

Figure 21 AVG Free removes the malware

Conclusion

This type of malware is very, very disturbing. One can only wonder how many users have been duped into installing ineffective security software, and what happened to their private information and credit card data when they paid for it. The presence of such software, and the overall very high quality of the ruse it presents, is frightening. More than likely, thousands of people have been fooled. In fact, this type of deception has been around for several years now, and it would not still be here if it did not work well.

This should serve as a dire warning to all: be extremely careful what you trust, and question everything that looks even remotely suspicious. For example, no website can run an anti-malware scan on your computer simply by your visiting the site. Any site that purports to do so is almost certainly run by criminal gangs.

No website should ever offer you to download an anti-malware package as soon as you visit the site. Any site that purports to do so is either run by criminal gangs or by an organization whose business practices are so deceptive that you should never consider doing business with it. A reputable site will present you with product information and then leave the downloading decision up to you, not force it upon you. No software that pushes the purchase decision so heavily in your face is likely to be legitimate.

Finally, learn just a little about how your computer looks normally so you can detect changes. The fake Windows Security Center is a very nice touch that could fool almost anyone except who doesn't pay attention to what the real one looks like and is called.

As for your anti-malware software, yes you need it. We all really do, at least on some computers. Advocating that you should stop using anti-malware software is irresponsible. If people were to actually take that advice, we would be overrun with malware in short order. You should definitely have anti-malware software on any computer that may come into contact with untrusted data and software.

However, do not just pick software because it tells you do pick it. Stick to the trusted brand names when it comes to anti-malware. And, if you get a download shoved down your computer when you visit a website, head over to Virus Total (http://www.virustotal.com/) and submit it for a scan. If it proves malicious, they will submit it to the anti-malware vendors for you. ®

A guide and tutorial on using ComboFix

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:29:00 +0000

Introduction

ComboFix is a program, created by sUBs, that scans your computer for known malware, and when found, attempts to clean these infections automatically. In addition to being able to remove a large amount of the most common and current malware, ComboFix also displays a log when it is finished that contains a great deal of information that an experienced helper can use to diagnose, retrieve samples of, and remove infections that are not automatically removed.

Due to the power of this tool it is strongly advised that you do not attempt to act upon any of the information displayed by ComboFix without supervision from someone who has been properly trained. If you do so, it may lead to problems with the normal functionality of your computer.

Using ComboFix

The first thing you should do is print out this guide as we will close all the open windows and programs, including your web browser, before starting the ComboFix program.

Next you should download ComboFix from one of the following URLs:

BleepingComputer.com

ForoSpyware.com

GeeksTogo.com

To download ComboFix, simply left-click on one of the links above and if you are using Internet Explorer, you will see a prompt similar to the figure below.

Download ComboFix Prompt

Click on the Save button and then when it asks you where to save it, make sure you save it directly to your Windows Desktop. An image showing this is below.

Downloading ComboFix to the Desktop

When you have the Save as screen configured to save ComboFix.exe to the Desktop, click on the Save button. ComboFix will now start downloading to your computer. If you are on a dialup, this may take a few minutes. When ComboFix has finished downloading you will now see an icon on your desktop similar to the one below.

ComboFix Icon

For now, do not start ComboFix as there are a few more steps that need to be done first.

You should now install the Windows Recovery Console. The Windows recovery console will allow you to boot up into a special recovery mode that allows us to help you in the case that your computer has a problem after an attempted removal of malware. If you use Windows XP and have a Windows CD, then you can follow the instructions found in the tutorial listed below.

How to install and use the Windows XP Recovery Console

Windows Vista users can use their Windows DVD to boot up into the Vista Recovery Environment.

If you use Windows XP and do not have the Windows CD, ComboFix includes a method of installing the Windows Recovery console by downloading a file from Microsoft. To install the Windows Recovery Console when you do not have the Windows XP CD, please follow these instructions:

Click on the following link to go to Microsoft's Web site:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

At that page, scroll down and click on the appropriate download for your version of Windows XP (Home or Professional) and the service pack level that you have installed. When you click on the link to download the file, make sure you save it directly to your desktop. If you are using Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), then select the Service Pack 2 download. If you are using Windows XP Media Center, then you should select the Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2 download. If you are unsure what version of Windows you have and what Service Pack is installed, you can follow these instructions to gain that information.

Click on the Start button.

Click on the Run menu option.

In the Open: field type the following: sysdm.cpl and then click on the OK button.

A screen will appear showing information about your installation. Under the System: category you should see your Windows version and the installed Service Pack. When you are done determining this information continue with Step 2.

Once the Microsoft file has finished downloading, you should drag it on top of the ComboFix icon and let your mouse button go. This is shown in the following image.

ComboFix will now automatically install the Windows Recovery Console onto your computer, which will show up as a new option when booting up your computer. Do not select the Windows Recovery Console option when you start your computer unless requested to by a helper.

Once the Windows Recovery Console has finished installed, ComboFix will open a prompt stating that it was installed and asking if you would like to proceed with scanning your computer. If you wish to continue, then press the Yes button and continue reading the tutorial from here. Otherwise, please continue with the rest of the tutorial below.

We are almost ready to start ComboFix, but before we do so, we need to take some preventative measures so that there are no conflicts with other programs when running ComboFix. At this point you should do the following:

Close all open Windows including this one.

Close or disable all running Antivirus, Antispyware, and Firewall programs as they may interfere with the proper running of ComboFix. Instructions on disabling these type of programs can be found in this topic.

Once these two steps have been completed, double-click on the ComboFix icon found on your desktop. Please note, that once you start ComboFix you should not click anywhere on the ComboFix window as it can cause the program to stall. In fact, when ComboFix is running, do not touch your computer at all and just take a break as it may take a while for it to complete.

Once you double-click on the icon, you may see a screen similar to the one below.

Windows Open File Security Warning

Windows is issuing this prompt because ComboFix does not have a digital signature. This is perfectly normal and safe and you can click on the Run button to continue. If you are using Windows Vista, and receive UAC prompt asking if you would like to continue running the program, you should press the Continue button.

You will now see the first ComboFix screen as shown below.

ComboFix is Preparing to Run

ComboFix is now preparing to run and when it has finished you will see the Disclaimer screen shown below.

ComboFix Disclaimer

If you do not agree to the disclaimer, then press the number 2 key on your keyboard and then press enter to exit the program. Otherwise, to continue you should press the number 1 key and then press the enter key to continue. If you decided to continue, then ComboFix will create a System Restore point so that if any problems occur while using the program you can restore back to your previous configuration. When ComboFix has finished creating the restore point, it will then backup your Windows Registry as shown in the image below.

ComboFix is backing up the Windows Registry

Once the Windows Registry has finished being backed up, you may now see the below message box.

ComboFix Recovery Console

If you see this box, please click on the Yes button in order for ComboFix to continue. ComboFix will now complete the Recovery Console process and then display a message box stating that you need to press Yes at the next screen. Press the OK button to continue and then at the next screen, which contains a license screen, press the Yes button and a new screen will appear.

ComboFix Recovery Console Finished

Now that the Recovery Console has finished installing, press the Yes button to continue. ComboFix will now disconnect your computer from the Internet. Therefore, do not be surprised or concerned if you receive any warnings stating that you are no longer on the Internet as your connection will be completely restored at a later stage in the program.

ComboFix will now start scanning your computer for known infections. This procedure can take some time, so please be patient.

ComboFix is scanning the computer for infections

While the program is scanning your computer, it will change your clock format, so do not be concerned when you see this happen. When ComboFix is finished it will restore your clock settings to what they were previously. You will also see the text in the ComboFix window being updated as it goes through the various stages of its scan. An example of this can be seen below.

Stages of the ComboFix AutoScan

At the time of this writing there are a total of 41 stages as shown in the image below, so please be patient. The amount of stages will go up as time goes on, so if the amount of stages is different when you run it, please do not be concerned.

41st Stage of the ComboFix AutoScan

When ComboFix has finished running, you will see a screen stating that it is preparing the log report as shown below.

ComboFix is preparing the log report

This can take a while, so please be patient. If you see your Windows desktop disappear, do not worry. This is normal and ComboFix will restore your desktop before it is finished. Eventually you will see a new screen that states the program is almost finished and telling you the programs log file, or report, will be located at C:\ComboFix.txt. This can be seen in the image below.

ComboFix is almost done!

When ComboFix has finished, it will automatically close the program and change your clock back to its original format. It will then display the log file automatically for you as shown below.

ComboFix Log File

You should now post this log as a reply to the topic where you were asked to run combofix. Your helper will now analyze this log and let you know what they would like you to do next. If you having problems connecting to the Internet after running Combofix, then please see this section.

It is possible that ComboFix, even on its first run, may have fixed the problems you are having. We strongly suggest that you still post your log into the topic that you are receiving help as you most likely will have infections left over that your helper will need to analyze further.

Manually restoring the Internet connection

If, by some chance, you no longer have access to your Internet connection after running ComboFix then the first thing to try is to reboot your computer. This step alone should fix the vast majority of issues with no Internet connection after running ComboFix. If you still do not have an Internet connection after rebooting then please perform the following steps:

Click on the Start button.

Click on the Settings menu option.

Click on the Control Panel option.

When the Control Panel opens, double-click on the Network Connections icon. If your Control Panel is set to Category View, then double-click on Network and Internet Connections and then click on Network Connections at the bottom.

You will now see a list of available network connections. Locate the connection for your Wireless or Lan adapter and right-click on it.

You will now see a menu similar to the image below. Simply click on the Repair menu option.

Repair Internet Connection

Let the repair process perform its tasks and when it has finished, your Internet connection should be working again.

Alternatively, if your network icon also appears on the Windows taskbar, then you can repair it by right-clicking on the icon and selecting Repair as shown below.

Repair Internet connection via Tray Icon

If you still do not have an Internet connection after performing these two tasks, then you may want to ask for help in our forums.

A guide and tutorial on using ComboFix

Using GParted to Resize Your Windows Vista Partition :: the How-To Geek

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:19:00 +0000

Using GParted to Resize Your Windows Vista Partition

One of the more advanced options for resizing your Windows Vista partition is to use the GParted Live CD, a bootable linux CD that takes you straight into GParted, the great linux utility for managing partitions. The problem is that if you resize your boot/system partition, you will be completely unable to boot without repairing windows.

First make sure that you have a bootable Windows Vista installation DVD, as you will be unable to use your computer if you don't. Next, download the GParted Live CD and burn it to cd.

Boot off the GParted cd, and you will see your hard drives in the drop-down list. The first drive is typically your boot drive, but you can check the Flags column to make sure.

Next you'll need to right-click on the partition and choose Resize/Move from the menu.

Now you can either use the New Size textbox, or just click and drag the partition to make it smaller (or bigger). When you are done, click the Resize/Move button.

This doesn't immediately apply the changes, though. You can make other changes to your partitions and then when you are finished click the Apply button.

Depending on the amount of data and the speed of your computer, it can take quite a while to resize the partitions. On my computer it took more than 30 minutes.

Once it's done, quit, remove the live cd and then reboot your computer. Unless you are very lucky, you'll be greeted with this horrible error message saying "Windows Failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause."

File: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Status: 0xc0000225
Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

Here's a screenshot of the error, but don't worry, we'll fix it.

Insert your Windows Vista installation dvd and make sure you boot off it. At the welcome screen click the Next button.

On the next screen, click the "Repair your computer" link in the lower left hand corner.

The system recover options dialog will show up, and will ask you if you want to Repair and restart, which we do.

If you happened to click the View details link you'll see that the error is "Windows Device: Partition=Not found", which indicates the problem is the partition that we resized.

Your computer will reboot, and you'll see Windows Vista in the list although it now has a different name indicating that it was recovered.

When Vista first starts up, it will start running a check of the disk. Whatever you do, don't hit any keys here because we want the system to check the disk.

Once it's done it will reboot, and you'll have Vista back up and running again!

If you want to rename the Windows Vista entry in the list back to normal, you can use VistaBootPro.

The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. This article was written on 08/8/07 and tagged with: Windows Vista, System Administration

Using GParted to Resize Your Windows Vista Partition :: the How-To Geek

Vista News

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:12:00 +0000

How to change the icon view in Explorer with the mouse scroll wheel

The new Vista Explorer has a slider that lets you change the view of the files and folders list from tiles to details to list to various sizes of icons. If you have a mouse or trackball with a scroll wheel, you can switch between these views more easily. Here's how:

Click the arrow next to the Views icon on the toolbar to invoke the Views menu

Hold down the CTRL key

Scroll the mouse wheel up or down to resize the icons or change the view

Note that you can resize the icons on your desktop the same way (click an empty space on the desktop, hold down CTRL and scroll up or down to resize)

Quickly copy a path to the clipboard

Now if you want to copy the path of a file on your hard disk to the clipboard, you don't have to go through the process of selecting the path in the address bar, copying it, pasting it and typing in the file name. Instead, with Vista you can just do the following:

Hold down the SHIFT key

Right click the file or folder whose path you want to copy

Select "Copy as Path"

Now it's on the clipboard and you can paste it into any application you choose.

Get Rid of Annoying Balloon Notifcation

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:50:00 +0000

QUESTION: I have one niggling little complaint against XP SP2. I use ZoneAlarm as my firewall of choice so have the XP firewall shut off. XP installs a little icon in the lower left corner next to the time. It is in the shape of a red medallion with an X in it. How can I remove it from there. Every time I restart after an install, it pops up a balloon saying my machine is unprotected and this is starting to really tick me off! HELP!!! Otherwise, Service Pack 2 went in with no problems this time around. Could you include something about how to get rid of this annoyance in some future issue of WinXP News? Thanks. - James F.

ANSWER: Unfortunately, there is no way to turn off only specific balloon notifications, but you can turn off all system tray balloon popups by editing the registry. We've covered that before, but since turning off the balloons is still one of the most common questions we get, we'll repeat the instructions here:

Open your favorite registry editor
In the left pane, navigate to:
HKEY CURRENT USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
Right click an empty space in the right pane and select New, then select DWORD value
Right click the new entry and select Rename. Give it the name EnableBalloonTips
Double click the entry and in the Value Data field, give it a hexadecimal value of 0
Close the registry editor

You'll need to log off and log back on before the change takes effect, and the balloons will be disabled only for the current user. If you log onto the computer with a different user account, the balloons will still appear.

How Data Recovery Works

QUESTION: In your article "ZipBackup: Believe it...hard disks can and do crash!" it's really nice that you can make backups prior to the crash, but we've all known that. What I would like to know, is there a software out there that will attempt to recover the contents on a hard drive that has already bit the dust? What do recovery companies use to recover the data? - Greg W.

ANSWER: Data recovery companies use sophisticated software that rebuilds the data from the magnetic marks made on the disk to represent ones and zeros (binary data). Data can be recovered from a disk after it's been "deleted" or even after the disk is formatted, because deleting and formatting do not actually erase those magnetic marks - they remain on the disk until they are overwritten by new data (and even then, it is sometimes possible to recover some of the data because the drive heads don't always line up exactly the same each time they write to the disk). The software used by data recovery companies is expensive (in the thousands of dollars). There are consumer versions of data recovery software available for simple situations where you've just deleted the files and haven't overwritten them. Do a Google search for "recover deleted files" to find some of these products. You have to be able to start the drive to use these programs. If the drive is actually dead, you probably need to take it to a data recovery service

How to use Internet Connection Sharing

noreply@blogger.com (RReyes) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:48:00 +0000

How to use Internet Connection Sharing

To use Internet Connection Sharing to share your Internet connection, the host computer must have one network adapter that is configured to connect to the internal network, and one network adapter or modem that is configured to connect to the Internet.

On the host computer

On the host computer, follow these steps to share the Internet connection:

Log on to the host computer as Administrator or as Owner.

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

Click Network and Internet Connections.

Click Network Connections.

Right-click the connection that you use to connect to the Internet. For example, if you connect to the Internet by using a modem, right-click the connection that you want under Dial-up.

Click Properties.

Click the Advanced tab.

Under Internet Connection Sharing, select the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection check box.

If you are sharing a dial-up Internet connection, select the Establish a dial-up connection whenever a computer on my network attempts to access the Internet check box if you want to permit your computer to automatically connect to the Internet.

10.

Click OK. You receive the following message:

When Internet Connection Sharing is enabled, your LAN adapter will be set to use IP
address 192.168.0.1. Your computer may lose connectivity with other computers on
your network. If these other computers have static IP addresses, it is a good idea to set them
to obtain their IP addresses automatically. Are you sure you want to enable Internet
Connection Sharing?

11.

Click Yes.

The connection to the Internet is shared to other computers on the local area network (LAN). The network adapter that is connected to the LAN is configured with a static IP address of 192.168.0.1 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0

On the client computer

To connect to the Internet by using the shared connection, you must confirm the LAN adapter IP configuration, and then configure the client computer. To confirm the LAN adapter IP configuration, follow these steps:

Log on to the client computer as Administrator or as Owner.

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

Click Network and Internet Connections.

Click Network Connections.

Right-click Local Area Connection, and then click Properties.

Click the General tab, click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in the This connection uses the following items list, and then click Properties.

In the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog box, click Obtain an IP address automatically (if it is not already selected), and then click OK.
Note You can also assign a unique static IP address in the range of 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254. For example, you can assign the following static IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway:

   IP Address      192.168.0.2

   Subnet mask     255.255.255.0

   Default gateway 192.168.0.1

In the Local Area Connection Properties dialog box, click OK.

Quit Control Panel.

To configure the client computer to use the shared Internet connection, follow these steps:

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

Click Network and Internet Connections.

Click Internet Options.

In the Internet Properties dialog box, click the Connections tab.

Click the Setup button.
The New Connection Wizard starts.

On the Welcome to the New Connection Wizard page, click Next.

Click Connect to the Internet, and then click Next.

Click Set up my connection manually, and then click Next.

Click Connect using a broadband connection that is always on, and then click Next.

10.

On the Completing the New Connection Wizard page, click Finish.

11.

Quit Control Panel.

When you now start Microsoft Internet Explorer, the client computer will try to connect to the Internet by using the host computer's shared Internet connection.

Troubleshooting

When you turn on Internet Connection Sharing on the host computer, the host computer's LAN adapter is automatically assigned the IP address of 192.168.0.1. Therefore, one of the following situations may occur:

•

IP address conflict
Each computer on the LAN must have a unique IP address. If more than one computer has the same IP address, an IP conflict occurs, and one of the network adapters turns off until the conflict is resolved. To resolve this conflict, configure the client computer to automatically obtain an IP address, or assign it a unique IP address.

•

Loss of network connectivity
If your network is configured with a different IP address range than Internet Connection Sharing uses, you will lose network connectivity with the host computer. To resolve this issue, configure the client computers to automatically obtain an IP address, or assign each client computer a unique IP address in the range of 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254.

News, Hints, Tips and Tricks

noreply@blogger.com (Rafa) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:53:00 +0000

Gadgets Gone Wild If you use Remote Desktop to connect to your Vista computer, you might have noticed that when you log back onto the computer locally, any gadgets you might have placed on secondary monitors will all have moved to your primary display. Ugh. I use RD a lot, and I get tired of tediously moving all my gadgets back to their correct positions each time. This was also a problem with dual monitors and RD on XP, but in that case it was the desktop icons rather than gadgets that got moved. You can read some possible solutions here: (registration required) http://www.vistanews.com/LGM1CL/071220-Gadgets-Gone-Wild Run Office 2003 on VistaI often hear from readers who complain that they don't like "the version of Office that runs on Vista." They're talking about Office 2007, which was released at the same time as Vista. But in talking to many users, there seems to be some confusion: a lot of people think you must upgrade to the new Office if you upgrade your OS to Vista. 'Tain't so! We happily run Office 2003 on some of our Vista machines. You can even run both Office 2003 and Office 2007 applications on Vista, by choosing to keep the old versions when you install Office 2007. The only program that you can't have installed in both versions is Outlook. For some tips on installing Office 2003 on Vista, see http://www.vistanews.com/LGM1CL/071220-Vista-Office-2003 How to block Vista SP1 from installingEarlier this month, Microsoft released a blocking tool for those who want to prevent Vista SP1 (as well as XP SP3) from installing through Windows Update. You can find it here: http://www.vistanews.com/LGM1CL/071220-Block-Vista-SP1

How to keep Windows Update from rebooting your computer

noreply@blogger.com (Rafa) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:50:00 +0000

How to keep Windows Update from rebooting your computer Have you ever gotten up in the morning and sat down at your computer, only to discover that it had rebooted itself during the night because of Windows Update - and all those documents and web sites you had spread across the desktop and were working on are now gone? Grrr. Well, there is a way to prevent this from happening, at least with some versions of Vista (we've heard that it doesn't work with Home, but haven't had a chance to test that). It does work with Ultimate and Business editions. The fix involves editing the registry, so be careful and back it up first. Here are the steps: 1. In your registry editor, navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows \ WindowsUpdate \ AU 2. Right click an empty space in the right pane and click New, then select WOR value. 3. Name the new value NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers 4. Set the value data field to 1. 5. Close the registry editor. Now you don't have to worry about the OS shutting down when you least expect (and least want) it to.