Internet Advisor » Toolkit

Toolkit – Other free utilities

erudel — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:45:14 +0000

The 46 Best Free Utilities
Ian “Gizmo” Richards maintains a running list of the 46 best free utilities on his “Tech Support Alert” Web site. Gizmo keeps the list up to date by adding and removing utilities and updating each of the 46 descriptions. I have referenced this page frequently, and have now added it to our Tool Kit.

Nir Sofers list of free utilities and Tools – Exellent web site that provides list of free utilities and tools - Tech tools – Recover passwords, Wireless router keys, networking utilities, command line utils, and much more.

Microsoft Windows Service Packs - Download a Windows Service Pack as a single file. If you are having difficulty locate older Windows Service packs you might find them at this Microsoft site.

Toolkit – Bootable CD tools (LiveCD)

erudel — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:40:58 +0000

Hiren’s BootCD is a free bootable CD containing various diagnostic programs for fixing various Windows computer problems. It is a Linux based operating system and provides dozens of utilities that can be best described as performing first aid for your computer. Anti-virus and Malware scanners, disk-check utilities, undelete……Download the 500mb zip file, extract or copy the files into a new folder, and run the BurnCD and let the program create the Hirens bootCD.

Puppy Linux is a bootable live CD that allows you to boot your computer from the puppy linux CD, bypassng your Windows Operating system, allowing you to view (and backup) all of your computers files. Read the entire article – here

Kaspersky Boot CD – This is a wonderful free utility provided by Kaspersky antivirus that allows you to create a bootable CD and scan your computers for viruses and other nasty unwanted programs.

Ultimate BootDisk 4 Windows

The “Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows” (www.ubcd4win.com ) by Benjamin Burrows is a bootable CD that runs WindowsPE (XP Post Environment). Built on Bart-PE, The Ultimate BootCD for Windows is stuffed with useful utilities specifically selected to diagnose and test hardware, recover and backup data, scan for viruses, adware and spyware and fix many computers problems. You create the bootable CD, but you must have the Windows XP-SP2 installation Cd, a CD burner and download the UBCD4win tools and image creation utility. The site provides both written and videos instructions.

Toolkit – PC Firewall

erudel — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:38:24 +0000

Kerio Personal Firewall
Highly respected free firewall that almost went out of existence until it was rescued. This is becoming the free firewall of choice by professionals.

Zone Alarm Personal Firewall by Zone Labs
Protects your computer by placing a barrier between your PC and all network traffic coming in and going out of your computer. Make sure you are downloading the free ZoneAlarm firewall and not the ZoneAlarm Security suite which is “nagware”. What that means is that after 30-60 days of free use, the software begins to nag you to upgrade to the paid version.

Rootkit Scanner

erudel — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:36:48 +0000

McAfee now provides a Rootkit scanner - A Rootkit is basically a malicous program (virus) that hides itself by using invalid WIndows characters – Microsoft will not let you create a file or folder with characters – !@#$%^&*()….). Most antivirus scanners can not detect rootkits.

Toolkit – AntiMalware and AntiSpyware

erudel — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:35:15 +0000

Special Note: Remember – If your computer appears to be infected the first step I perform is a Windows System Restore. A system restore will return your computers system files to a state recorded on a particlulare date and time you have selected.

The longer the virus, malware, or scare-ware is running the more deeply it can embed itself into your computer, even disabling the ability to install antivirus / antimalware scanners. When you perform a system restore the malicious files may still be on your computer but the modifications made by the virus that allows it to run when the computer starts up or the changes to critical system files will have be removed and restored. You need to still need to scan your computer after the system restore with an updated Anti-virus and / or Malware scanner.

To perform a system restore:
Start / (all) Programs / Accessories / System Tools / System Restore. Restore your computer to an earlier date and time (when your computer was not infected).

Malware Bytes (free edition Scanner – Purchased version provide realtime protection)
I started using this little GEM of a scanner when some of my Favorite scanners failed to detect or remove nasty infection like the Vundo Virus, AntiVirus 2008/2009/360 and many others. This scanner detects virus, malware, trojans, and other unwanted programs by how they behave, what they access, if they are monitoring keystrokes, spawning / creating / modifying exiting programs. This is my favorite scanner - 1/2012.
Go to MalwareBytes.Org to download the free version (using C-net). But, because the C-net download can be confusing, click here to download directly from FileHippo.com

Super Antispyware scanner
Download the free version of SUPERAntispyware protection. The free utility is one of my favorite tools that I install to detect and remove malicious software.

ComboFIX
This free utility should only be downloaded from Bleepingcomputer.com as the author has authorized this as the only distribution source. This powerful utility is included in my toolkit but should be used by experienced technicians (or desperate users). The creator of this utility also warns that the utility should not be used without supervision or it could cause your computer to not operate correctly.

Panda Cloud antivirus and Malware Scanner - Cloud based scanning does not require you to install the software but simply initiate the scan from within your web browser. The utility make take a little longer but this type of scanner has the advantage of being able to scan your computers when the virus prevents the installation of traditional removal tools.

Microsoft Malicious Software removal tool - Anti-Malware and Virus protection. This tool continues to be updated by Microsoft and now include Botnet detection.

Norman Malware Cleaner – PC Magizone rated this scanner just below Malware Bytes by only a few points so it must be pretty good.

Toolkit – AntiVirus

erudel — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:30:51 +0000

Special Note:

Remember – If your computer appears to be infected the first step I perform is a Windows System Restore. A system restore will return your computers system files to a state recorded on a particlulare date and time you have selected.

To perform a system restore:
Start / (all) Programs / Accessories / System Tools / System Restore. Restore your computer to an earlier date and time (when your computer was not infected).

Most Internet Service Providers (Comcast, ATT, brighthouse) provide a free Anti-Virus security suit. If your ISP does not provide antivirus protection, select one of the free suits below.

Microsoft Security Essentials
Free antivirus and Malware protection from Microsoft.

AVG Anti-Virus
Click on the link for information on Grisoft’s free and fully functional version of their popular anti-virus software. Free for home use and registration is not required. Download Here

Avast
This is my far the best free antivirus programs. Ed has installed this on one of his home computers and it works as well as others he has used. Free for home use and registration is required.

Avira Antivirus
Avira has a free antivirus software that can be used for personal use and support Windows XP, 2000, and 98. Free AntiVir Personal Edition – Download here

Symantec / Norton Security tools – A list of specific programs that will remove an individual trojan or Virus

Internet Search tips and tricks

erudel — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 17:01:49 +0000

Ed Rudel Special Search Tips (Click on link to hear the segment of our 4/09/11 program where we discuss the tips and the new addition to the Toolkit)

Can you imagine the internet without web search capabilities? We would have to know specific web site addresses for every web site we visit. A simple comparison would be memorizing all of the phone numbers we use on a daily basis and if we needed to find a new business or person we would have to look the information using the yellow or white pages.

Internet search portals provide the ability to type in a simple name, phase, or question and display a list of web site links that contain the words you provided. These search results can be overwhelmingly huge and may or may not pertain to the information you were looking for.

The more specific the information you provide (the search criteria) the better the results. Internet sites like “Google, Bing, Yahoo, or About.com are continuously refining and improving but there are a number of tips you can use to improve your Search results on your favorite Internet search site.

If you have an Internet Search tip or trick, send it to ed@internetadvisor.net and I may include it into the list below.

Be specific – When you first start your search type in as much information as possible. This will reduce the number of unrelated items when the search is performed.	Instead of typing the search phrase – unable to receive emailtype in the specific error message and what program is generating the error. Example: Outlook express Error 0x800c0133Furture, you can include the Windows operating system or what version of Outlook express. Example: Windows Vista Outlook express 7 Error 0x800c0133 Another Example: Royal Oak Michigan hardware appliance repair parts We are providing a city and state but are interested in locating a hardware store that provides appliance parts.
Use Quote around your search phrase.	The addition of quotes in your search phase will reduce the number of false results. Example: “Chevy Cavalier” “Engine Code” P0440 2001 In this example we are grouping the “Chevy Cavalier” and “Engine Code” but the specific year of the car, 2001, and the actual error code, P0440, may appear anywhere on the web pages that are searched.
If your search results look too narrow or limited forget specifics and quotes	Sometime you may be proving too much information and the search results are too few or completely miss the mark. You may want to remove the “quotes” in the phase and remove any unnecessary word. Referencing the example above, instead of specifying the year, 2001 and the model, Chevy Cavalier and broaden the search try search for just the error code and the manufactgure. Example: GM engine code P0440
Check your Spelling	Correct spelling is important if you want accurate search results. This is less important as most internet search site will either correct commonly misspelled words or provide a link with the corrected search.On rare occasion, you may want to search using the common misspelling, especially when searching a name. In the age or Blogging and twittering there is no copy editor.Example: Greg or Gregg, John 0r Jon, Duane or Dwain Another example would be alternate spellings used in other countries. Use Colour , the European spelling of “Color” I still remember reading J. R. R. Tolkens, the Hobbit when I was 12 years old and counting what I thought was 12 misspelling of the word, Colour.
Use Abbreviations , sometimes	Sometimes, when I have difficulty searching for an item or piece of information I will remove the common spelling of the word and use an abbreviation. Eng = Engine Info = information Month = instead of January 21, try Jan 21
Include FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) or HELP in the search phase	If you are searching for answers to a specific question you may want to include, Help or FAQ into your search phase. Most web sites include a help or FAQ section on their site and there are countless site and forums dedicated to answering questions. This can dramatically reduce the number of results as well as target web pages or articles specifically designed to answer common questions.

The Best Free Software of 2010

Foster Braun — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:15:19 +0000

Get what you DON’T pay for! PC Mag reports on 196 programs that cost nothing but will make your computing life richer while keeping your wallet fat!

What is the best Anti-virus suite out there?

Foster Braun — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:09:06 +0000

PC Mag recently put 12 anti-virus suites to the test to see who really give the best all around protection. Remember, these are suites: they are like Swiss Army Knives with lots of functions, all of which take up Ram but just might offer some pretty comprehensive protection. Full Story

Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:32:04 +0000

Computer crashes happen to all of us and usually at the worst possible time.

You guessed it, my computer crashed and now I have to deal with picking up the pieces. My job is to provide technical assistance and instill confidence into others whose computer have failed. This isn’t suppose to happen to me.

Ironically, when this terrible event happened, I was attempting to recover someone else’s data from a failed laptop hard drive. I plugged their 2 and a half inch hard drive into my Laptop computers trusty drive tray (like I have done dozens of times before). I waited for Windows XP to automatically discover the new disk drive so that I could backup the data. But their drive did not spin up and my computer hanged and became unresponsive. Knowing that something went south with my computer, I reboot it. Windows appeared to come up normally but I was unable to log into it with my user ID and password.

The portion of the Windows registry that stores user IDs and passwords was corrupted and I knew I was in deep doo-doo.

How am I going to fix my computer? A corrupted registry is “Bad”. I knew that my data was safe and that I could recover the data from the hard drive or from a backup. What I wanted to avoid was some serious down time and the 4-6 hours to reload Windows, install all of the applications, and configure all of the email accounts, Printers, and utilities.

I tried all of the basics and they took about 15 minutes.

I tried to log in using the administrator account instead of my own. It was corrupted as well. So much for using the “System Restore” utility.
I tried to force Windows XP into “Safe Mode” and “Safe Mode Command Prompt” by pressing the F8 key when powering up the computer. This failed as well as I was still unable to log into the computer.
I tried to use the F8 key startup menu and selected to start the computer with the “Last known working configuration”. Failed
I tried to use the Windows XP install CD and try to use the “Recovery Console” and perform a check-disk (CHKDSK) hoping a disk error could be discovered and repaired. Nope.
I used my trusted bootable flash drive (bootable linux with a password cracker), and allow me to change the administrator password in the hope that this would somehow fix the user-id. Nope.

It was time for me to pull out the big guns.

The “Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows”. www.ubcd4win.com by Benjamin Burrows. The UBCD4win is a bootable CD that run WindowsPE (XP Post Environment) and is stuffed with useful utilities specifically selected to diagnose and test hardware, recover data, backup, scan for viruses-adware-spyware, and fix computers problems.

The utility I had specifically in mind was the Registry restore utility. This would scan the C-Drive for the Windows XP registry files and for the “System Restore” files. The utility then provides the ability to restore the Windows registry to a previous data and Time. After booting my computer with Benjamin Burrows UBCD4win CD and running the registry restore utility, I was up and running inside another 10 minutes.

We interviewed Ben on the Internet Advisor last year and I can tell you that he has greatly improved the collection of utilities. His web site provides the downloads and instructions so that you can create your own Ultimate Boot Disk for Windows.

Thanks Ben.