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Major Geeks has a link to a stripped version of Windows 10. Updates might be a problem, or maybe thye can be downloaded and installed manually. I'm thinking about it. After all, no Store and no telemetry isn't all bad. https://www.majorgeeks.com/fil...

Nah, I was a long term Foxit fan but they really jumped the shark with their new interface and associated bloat that came out around what, 5-6 years ago? Today I find the software cumbersome and loaded up with crap.

If you just want a simple PDF reader to show PDFs, then on Windows Sumatra PDF really is the best choice. The installer has a hokey colour scheme, but aside from that it's a nice little utility.

See subject: I write TRUE "stand-alone" .exes statically compiled code vs. runtime driven for APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-7 32/64-bit https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=%22APK+Hosts+File+Engine%22+and+%22start64%22&btnG=Google+Search&gbv=1/

Twofold - BETTER PERFORMANCE & LESS SECURITY ISSUES (as well as less complexity & dependence on others' possibly shoddy/defective work)!

* Depending on others' code = bad idea (libs OR runtimes).

APK

P.S.=> E.g. - This http://www.majorgeeks.com/file... is .NET interpreted SLOWER code (& has the potential for problems like this article shows) - test its initial loadtime ALONE w/ a large hosts file vs. mine & see (& like hostsman which uses SQLite (C buffer overflow issues + a 17++ yr. long exploit in it recently), it too doesn't do hardcoded favorites @ TOP of hosts for more speed, security, reliability & anonymity vs. DNS security issues)... apk

See subject: Prime reasons I used TRUE executable statically compiled code vs. runtimes for APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-7 32/64-bit https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=%22APK+Hosts+File+Engine%22+and+%22start64%22&btnG=Google+Search&gbv=1/ was twofold - BETTER PERFORMANCE & LESS SECURITY ISSUES!

APK

P.S.=> Give you a case-in-point e.g. - this program http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/hosts_file_editor.html/ is .NET interpreted SLOWER code (& has the potential for problems like this article shows) - test its initial loadtime ALONE w/ a large hosts file program vs. mine & see my point on that note too (& like hostsman which uses SQLite (C buffer overflow issues + a 17++ yr. long exploit in it recently), it too doesn't do hardcoded favorites @ TOP of hosts for more speed, security, reliability & anonymity vs. DNS security issues). Depending on others' code = bad idea... apk

See subject: "... Reconstructed APK's Light Saber" http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/hosts_file_editor.html/

* I'd respect "your kind" @ least if you managed what Nebojsa Vucinic Trebinje has there (it's actually GOOD - not QUITE where mine is - FAR slower loading w/ large hosts files & doesn't do hardcoded favorites resolution where you spend most time online for more speed (also security vs. DNS security & tracking fails etc.), but that's only his first++ attempt apparently - not too shabby, about on par w/ hostsman already imo)!

* Unlike you? He spends his time effectively constructing his own Light Saber - "Light Saber: This is the weapon of the Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon from a more civilized age..." Obi-Wan Kenobi

APK

P.S.=> I'll have to write him "Kudos" from the JEDI MASTER (me) on that one (I give credit where it's due) & I have to write you YOU WISH YOU WERE ME (or he above)... apk

It's not the subscription service they are looking for. They are looking for control. They can't automatically push updates to older versions of windows, they can with Windows 10. The method of forcing people to pay is really irrelevant. Whether it's in discreet quantized chunks or miking over time, that doesn't matter. What really matters is that they have the ability to do what they want to any computer they want. End of service? No problem, push an updated that requires you to upgrade or your OS shuts down. They can't do that with older versions of Windows. The attempts at forcing the upgrade to Windows 10 through the windows update system shows that it's control, not a different funding model, they are really after.

Here is my prediction for Windows 10 EOL. In a year or two's time, when the next version of Windows is out and (air quote) stable (end air quote), a fatal security flaw will be found in Windows 10. It will be so fundamental that it can't be fixed through a normal windows update. Microsoft, in order to save the world from all the people who irresponsibly won't upgrade to Windows 11 (and thus are placing the world at risk of massive botnets) will force an update out that disables internet access to all Windows 10 machines.

I highly encourage everyone to use Windows Update Mini Tool to take control back of your Windows 10 update process.

Hosts alone can't do it (MS bypasses hosts 4 telemetry+updates (latter's a good thing vs. hijack (can't in usermode w/ my program resident)))

&

"F'd up" hosts to a lesser degree I discussed w/ their VP for Windows Client performance -> https://slashdot.org/comments.... YEARS ago (makes it less efficient than it CAN be 0 vs. 0.0.0.0 vs. 127.0.0.1 - but it still works vs. most threats) & he agreed w/ me but did zero (odd).

Software firewall rules block it (issues w/ hotmail.com/outlook.com & bing.com), e.g.-> http://www.majorgeeks.com/file... & shows you they "tie into" those servers. If you don't use hotmail/bing you're ok.

APK

P.S.=> APK Hosts File Engine's to help everyone for more speed + reliability for LESS yet doing MORE from 1 single file w/ less moving parts complexity & security issues vs. other "so-called 'solutions'" via what you NATIVELY have - GOOD ENGINEERING doing more w/ less! Many here + elsewhere like my work in the 1,000's using it! apk

APK has nothing to do with it, there are several ways to manage a hosts file without requiring you to use a spammer's software to block ads. A quick search shows a program called HostsMan, for example. There's a small list of hosts managers here (including the one I mentioned, but that list doesn't include the software written by a notorious spammer), and another list here (also with a notable exclusion).

Even if you want a program to help you manage your hosts file, you still don't need to stoop to the level of a spammer, there are spam-free hosts file alternatives also (which should not be a surprise).

I've had to hide KB 3035583 over a dozen times now. It's really not worth my time to micromanage this crap on every PC in my office, so I just installed GWX Control Pane: http://www.majorgeeks.com/file...

1) They do NOT prompt you.
A week ago we woke up to find my Wife's PC running Windows 10.

2) If you remove it, they do it again, over and over.

3) The cure and solution is a good piece of software that is free and easy to use:
  GWX Control Panel

http://www.majorgeeks.com/file...

http://www.eweek.com/security/...
http://www.itworld.com/article...
http://www.itworld.com/article...
http://www.itworld.com/article...
http://www.majorgeeks.com/news...
http://www.majorgeeks.com/news...
http://www.net-security.org/se...
http://www.networkworld.com/co...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...
http://it.slashdot.org/story/1...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...
http://it.slashdot.org/story/1...

APK

P.S.=> So much for your faith in routers alone stupid (225 in total, 15 posts with 15 items each)... apk

http://www.eweek.com/security/...
http://www.itworld.com/article...
http://www.itworld.com/article...
http://www.itworld.com/article...
http://www.majorgeeks.com/news...
http://www.majorgeeks.com/news...
http://www.net-security.org/se...
http://www.networkworld.com/co...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...
http://it.slashdot.org/story/1...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...
http://it.slashdot.org/story/1...

APK

P.S.=> So much for your faith in routers alone stupid (225 in total, 15 posts with 15 items each)... apk

This is not new; Intel is known for doing this from some time. As proof. there is actually an utility to search executable files compiled with the Intel C++ Compiler and disable the CPU dispatcher in detected files on the hard drive addressing an issue that causes non Intel chipsets to run these programs slower.

"The compiler or library can make multiple versions of a piece of code, each optimized for a certain processor and instruction set, for example SSE2, SSE3, etc. The system includes a function that detects which type of CPU it is running on and chooses the optimal code path for that CPU. This is called a CPU dispatcher. However, the Intel CPU dispatcher does not only check which instruction set is supported by the CPU, it also checks the vendor ID string. If the vendor string says "GenuineIntel" then it uses the optimal code path. If the CPU is not from Intel then, in most cases, it will run the slowest possible version of the code, even if the CPU is fully compatible with a better version."

In other words, it is believed that Intel uses this to make their processor faster than the competition, mainly AMD.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/...
http://www.eweek.com/article2/...
http://www.eweek.com/article2/...
http://www.eweek.com/security/...
http://www.itworld.com/article...
http://www.itworld.com/article...
http://www.itworld.com/article...
http://www.majorgeeks.com/news...
http://www.majorgeeks.com/news...
http://www.net-security.org/se...
http://www.networkworld.com/co...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne..." ADD_DATE="1314658631" LAST_VISITED="0">Cisco routers caused major outage in Japan report - Network World
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...

APK

P.S.=> So much for your faith in routers alone stupid (225 in total, 15 posts with 15 items each)... apk

http://www.eweek.com/article2/...
http://www.eweek.com/article2/...
http://www.eweek.com/article2/...
http://www.eweek.com/security/...
http://www.itworld.com/article...
http://www.itworld.com/article...
http://www.itworld.com/article...
http://www.majorgeeks.com/news...
http://www.majorgeeks.com/news...
http://www.net-security.org/se...
http://www.networkworld.com/co...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne..." ADD_DATE="1314658631" LAST_VISITED="0">Cisco routers caused major outage in Japan report - Network World
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...

APK

P.S.=> So much for your faith in routers alone stupid (225 in total, 15 posts with 15 items each)... apk

Lots
of
downsides

At this point, why would you trust anything they say?

Quite simply: It's not Google.

Neither are these.

https://www.tivo.com/shop/roam...

$199 + $499 = $700. How much did you spend on the TV tuner and computer?

http://www.rosswalker.co.uk/ti...

Upgrades are pretty much brain dead simple now. Throw in a new hard drive and off you go. You can also add USB or eSATA hard drives, which is as simple as it can be.

Don't add FUD.

A Tivo can have up to 16 TB of storage. Sure you can get more into a computer, but this is still huge.

Recordings are not trapped in the Tivo, Tivo Desktop is a free piece of software that pulls them off, and they can then easily be converted to MPeg, or just us kmttg. This process is just as complicated as MCE with MCEBuddy. I would like to go to MP4 like MCEBuddy, instead of MPEG with kmttg.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/file...
http://sourceforge.net/project...

See subject & the file in it - just released today & carries NEW Icaros files...

* To save you some time Trax001bbs? Use this link:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/mg/g...

APK

P.S.=> Enjoy... apk

Thanks APK but I'll give it a version or two, I didn't think it would take long for a newer version as everybody was having problems with it, or more to the point IcarosPropertyHandler.dll

VLC does most if not all I need. The only exception is a .SWF file (requires Flash).

See subject & the file in it - just released today & carries NEW Icaros files...

* To save you some time Trax001bbs? Use this link:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/mg/g...

APK

P.S.=> Enjoy... apk

There are other options as well.

You have a LOT of Windows and Shareware, in that list. ;-)

I browse from a 1995 era SGI, and a QNX Neutrino RTOS VM. I'm contemplating Acorn RiscOS on a RaspberryPi.

There are other options as well.

Actually as long as they are not on windows 8/8.1? Old Hairy can show you how to make "Windows Washing" as you call it trivial. It'll only take you a few minutes to clean and about an hour to do initial setup. Its so easy that for those whom I've set up this way I charge a flat $40 for any windows washing they need on the unit, its so quick and easy...ready?

1.- Install Comodo Internet Security and be sure to say YES when it comes to having it install Comodo Dragon, you'll see why in a minute. Set Comodo IS to "paranoid mode". 2.- Install Comodo Time Machine and lock the first snapshot. also in the options set it to make a snapshot daily and have it set to dump snapshots older than 30 days. 3.- Toss any links to IE, making sure its nowhere to be seen. For extra performance turn off system restore.

Now what this setup has done is make an encrypted backup with a daily snapshot (in case something manages to get through) while every process and the browser is run by default in a sandbox and treated as suspect. Using this system I've had customers that USED to get every bug, the FBI bug, the Security Tool variants, all the nasties, now? I maybe hear from them one every 6 months (when they refuse to listen to the AV and try to install something dodgy) and it takes less than 20 minutes to restore them back to health. watch how easy it is, I have even walked some over the phone when i didn't have time..1.- reboot system, 2.-When you see the big clock on the screen? Hit the home key, 3.- Pick a day before they screwed up...its THAT easy.

As for the E350? I consider it one of the great little secrets, its like the raspberry pi of X86, you can do so many different things. You can use something like the OpenELEC Fusion Build to make it into an instant HTPC/Roku/Media tank, slap a PCI to IDE? You can pop them into just about any old office box for an instant upgrade. Need a cheap file server? Media Server? Netbox? Not a problem. Hell I even play some light gaming like Torchlight II, GTA Vice City, The Portal games, there are even YouTube vids of guys playing Crysis on E350s with the bling lowered and getting playable framerates.

If you do get one? The one bit of advice i can NOT stress enough is get the fastest RAM the board will take because with an APU the RAM speed DOES matter, you can get as much as 30% more oomph out of one by pairing it with decently fast RAM. I swapped out the 2Gb of 1066 mine came with for 8Gb of 1333 and it was like upgrading the whole system, everything that was skippy went smooth and the things that were choking became usable. Also be DAMN SURE to use the latest drivers, especially in Windows and take the optional codec installs. AMD has optimized codecs that will move a lot of the heavy lifting to the GPU and with the E series it does make a difference.

Anyway I hope your medical situation works itself out and any questions feel free to shoot me an email, but I would have no problem recommending a Bobcat to a member of my family as they really are great little chips.

As a PC shop guy I run into this problem quite a lot and there are actually a few options. You can have a program like Paragon Backup and Recovery Free set to make daily/weekly/whatever disc images and then easily roll it back when they bone it (because if they are like most older folks no matter how many times you tell them "don't click on that" they will) but the problem with those is that you usually have to be the one to roll it back, too complex to restore from disk image for an old person.

So while this way is no longer supported on Win 8 and above (but since Win 8 is a bomb who cares) this is the way that I do it and it gets the "Hairyfeet seal of approval". This method scores damned near a 10 out of 10 in both keeping infections out and in fixing if they manage to bypass your security and infect it anyway. And yes that is a problem, as i have seen older folks actually turn OFF the AV because an email told them to. As a bonus it costs $0.00 and doesn't take more than an hour tops. Ready?

1.- Install Comodo AV Free and be DAMNED SURE to pick YES when it comes to installing Comodo Dragon, the why will be apparent in a moment. You can go ahead and uncheck geek buddy, that is your job, they don't need some guy at a helpdesk in India to tell them what to do. 2.- Go into Comodo AV after install and turn it to "paranoid mode" this will run everything in a sandbox by default and treat everything as suspect. Now for your not completely clueless you can leave it in clean PC mode, but for those that click the "punch the clown and win an iPad" types paranoid is safest. 3.- the final step is to download and install Comodo Time Machine and LOCK the first image, call it "clean PC" or something else that will be easy to tell grandma over the phone. A bit of warning when it comes to CTS, it dos NOT work on win 8, it does NOT work on dual boots, you should also set it to clean out old snapshots after say 30 days. That said if you want a PC that can recover from pretty much every bug out there? here ya go.

And that is it, stick a fork, there is no step 4. Of course this assumes you have already done the common sense things like set windows update to automatic but other than that you should now have a 100% clean PC that will stay that way. The browser is sandboxed and locked down, runs by default in low rights mode, the AV is watching everything like a hawk and if they manage to talk the old folks into bypassing the AV? Time machine has you covered. I have several users that would get more nasties than a Bangkok whore on coupon night and thanks to this little 3 step program their PCs are pretty much idiot proof. Oh and as a bonus if they screw anything up, uninstall a printer driver or just trash a program? it takes less than 10 minutes over the phone to restore with CTS. You tell them reboot, hit home key when they see the big clock, pick the day before (assuming you set it for daily or snapshot on boot) and leave it alone...and that is it, the CTS will set the machine back and it'll be like they never made the boo boo.

I've had 10,000-20,000 and mine's not vapor ware. These are indirect downloads: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/LoseThos/1183618683/1 http://majorgeeks.com/LoseThos_d6176.html the CIA, my mental health doctor, the FBI or somebody is fooling me cause my emails are FBI. Win8 is the nail in the coffin. They deprived me of my chance. God will do justice, rest assured. God is just. Yer fucked.

I get a lot of mileage out of Windows Repair Portable. It restores settings for a large number of issues that don't have a regular, non-painful reset/repair/reinstall option. I've found it particularly handy for fixing the Windows Firewall and Windows updates.

I'd prefer to do a reinstall under almost all circumstances of malware infection, but that's not always an option available for home or small business systems. I particularly dislike having to rely on Windows System Restore. I really wish modern versions of Windows had a painless repair install that would allow end users to keep programs and settings.

the activity was geographically dispersed

http://majorgeeks.com/story.php?id=34000

If I had mod points...

I second the MajorGeeks suggestion. They have a lot of very useful utilities and such, even applications that are old or archived. Then they present you with a main link or alternative links (sometimes to third parties). Pages are clean, utilities are ranked, screenshots (if any) are linked. It's just a nice site.

Sure, and the power requirements for DOS are even lower, what's your point?

Nope, not true. DOS doesn't run a NOP/sleep thread. Even Windows 3.x & 9x didn't have it. Hence the creation of Waterfall and other cpu sleepers for those OSes.

It is currently on Major Geeks, but who knows for how long. From the sound of it all it does is make a USB drive bootable like the HP format tool and then copy the ISO files to the drive.

Hell something that simple...why would they need to steal GPL code,unless they got themselves a seriously lazy programmer/contractor?

I did have that problem and solved it with the Win2K launcher and setting the games to run with a processor affinity of 1.

It was quite annoying, but I still have the same machine and I haven't used the launcher in a _long_ time, so I would say the software problems have been resolved.

1) Download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, and run it. It was the only thing that found a virus on my computer recently, out of six packages (including two commercial ones).
2) Download HijackThis, if that doesn't work. Be careful with this package, though! You can do some serious damage to your computer by blindly following its advice. Read the forums.
3) How full is your hard drive? If the C: drive is full enough, fragmentation can dramatically mess up performance in a very short time. Clean and defrag. I personally find it worthwhile to use SmartDefrag, a much more powerful defragger than the one that's built into Windows.
4) Read your logs. Yes, Windows actually logs stuff! Go to "Control Panel-->Administrative Tools-->Computer Management" and then dig through "System Tools-->Event Viewer" TONS of useful information about what's not healthy on your system, including complete boot logs.

Good luck.

As a professional in the field of fixing this and other similar problems with PCs, I would have to say that the first thing to consider, is a fresh install of the operating system.

As a geek, that thought makes me cringe... because I want to fix it.

I was doing a bit of necessary research on a machine tonight, where every time it was updated to SP3 after a fresh install (heavy spyware/malware infected system, customer opted for the quicker format-reinstall instead of the longer cleaning) it would BSOD with a 0x07e. The fresh install was from a Compaq/HP recovery partition. The issue, as it turned out, was due to an orphaned registry entry relating to the fact that the initial recovery image was made on an Intel machine (probably at a factory in Texas). On a machine with a non-Intel processor, when Windows is updated to SP2 or SP3, this registry key is activated, and the machine will attempt to start up with intelpmm.sys loading... which causes a BSOD on an AMD machine. How many countless Compaq Presario desktop users came home to this obscure BSOD? We at the shop avoided seeing this problem on a lot of repair jobs, because we would just blow all the partitions, and install fresh with an OEM CD and their key.

Now... the geek in me wants to keep one iteration of an OS going for as long as possible... which I can do with Windows. I am typing this on a copy of windows that was installed... about 5 years ago. I've cloned it onto newer drives, and I've gone through different motherboards without having to reinstall. Why? Because I know enough to be a professional and I make my living on the hardware. I don't think that everyone should have to be a professional to keep their computer running smoothly though. unfortunately, this is not how things are.

So what to do with a machine that crawls? Look first at when it started crawling. If it happened slowly over time, that's hard to do. If you came home one day, booted the box and it crawled from that day forth... you look at the event viewer. You see what your computer did before it started running like crap. Was there a windows update? It is conceivable that there was an automatic update, and it is conceivable that it made a change that made your computer unhappy. I can't tell you how many systems run great as they are updating, then look or sound like crap, because the Windows Update suggested driver for the onboard Intel GPU or C-Media sound (which was actually a Realtek) screwed up an OS rebuild.

There are a bucket full of tools out there.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/
Visit that site. Investigate the tools. Ok, you know about "antivirus" and Spybot. Do you know about Malwarebytes? And how it gets hundreds of current maleware baddies that spybot doesn't? Do you know about Combo Fix, how it will add an easy boot to the recovery console, AND repair some specific Malware infections? There is a long list of tools. And some of them do have an overlap with other tools, in what they find. Others, are Very specific (Smitfraud.C removal tool, for example). How is your AV doing? Are you mistakenly running multiple resident scanners at the same time? DO you have a ton of things running on Startup?

See? Sure, Linux can make things easier in some cases. And yes, the more you know, and the more patience you have (and the more care you exercise) the better your Windows experience can be. But you have to pay attention to your machine. You have to investigate problems. You have to be well armed, or willing to pay a professional to take care of it. Sure. Everyone has the potential to be a great gardener. Most, will hire a professional. Same thing here. I don't care who says it's easy. They forget that they know more than the majority. What is easy for them, is not common knowledge. People still think that their computer needs more "memory", because they can't download any more songs. They don't know that the little windows sticker on the side or bottom of a computer is an

Use HijackThis. Bleeping computer has a tutorial which links to tools you can use to look up process and service names. It's essentially a registry tool that displays keys are often exploited (your startup list, BHO's, services, things like that), though it does several other handy things as well.
It's also a great way to simply boost performance by cleaning up unnecessary startup items and services, but use it with care, most of the things it displays are totally supposed to be there.

If HijackThis looks clean then your system is probably not infected and you should check the hard drive, chkdisk might tell you something, but the manufacturer probably provides an .iso for a bootable disk that will do a more thorough test. I'd make a backup first.

Is there any software for Linux that can generate hosts file entries from bookmarks (and scan for changes) like Fastnet99 for Windows?

Photoshop CS1, CS2 both work in Wine. CS3 is installable.

^_^ Google is paying Wine to works specifically on Photoshop, so yeah!

Yes, your $25 Generic webcam will work on Linux thanks to that one guy who added all those drivers in one go ( http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/30/209201 )

Desktop Media creation is kind of vague, but you can edit audio, make movies, etc. It is also REALLY easy to turn almost all video into a format that plays in dvd players (Try devede, it works great)

Yes you can connect your 360 to linux, and you can use the controler in linux, and you can stream to the PS3 in linux, and you can use the ps3 controller in linux, and you can use the wii controller in linux.

Google is a better resource than Comcast. Comcast can't trouble shoot WINDOWS much less linux. 'Restart' does not count as troubleshooting.

Crysis can be played on Linux at the bronze level, which is better than it can run on my computer anywho: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=5880 , but this seems like an unfair requirement.

Sims City 4 runs like a champ: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=4088 But Sims in general is a huge category of games...

Let me ask you a question.
Can you run Windows for a year without restarting, slowing down, or crashing? How about 3 months?
Can you install 50 programs while uninstalling 32, while also installing/uninstalling all dependencies at the same time?
Can you (^_^ With pulse audio) plug in as many sound cards as you want, have them auto detected and added, and stream your audio to all computers in the house with indivdual volume controls for each item using it (Browser plugins, vlc, etc)
Can you quickly and easily change your wallpaper, window edges, icons, mouse, and all animations with little effort, in such a way that all applications reflect those changes?
Can you backup all your settings by copying one folder?
Can you share it legally with your friends/family?

Come back with "Yes" and I will reconsider Windows. And if you keep using windows, try out PowerMenu ( http://www.majorgeeks.com/PowerMenu_d87.html ), which allows window's to minimize to try, keep always on top, and other stuff.

Have you ever heard of Faronics DeepFreeze? It's a virtualization program that preserves a hard drive's data by automatically erasing all changes made during a session upon reboot. Some Internet cafes and other providers of public Internet access install DeepFreeze on their machines.

The bad news is that DeepFreeze is not free. The good news is that a similar program called Returnil Virtual System is available for free to private users. Get it here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Returnil_Virtual_System_ Personal_Edition_d5702.html

ALT DOWNLOAD URL HERE >>> http://www.majorgeeks.com/Microsoft_Windows_Media_ Player_Firefox_Plugin_d5606.html

Please note that Bootvis.exe is not a tool that will improve boot/resume performance for end users. Contrary to some published reports, Bootvis.exe cannot reduce or alter a system's boot or resume performance. The boot optimization routines invoked by Bootvis.exe are built into Windows XP. These routines run automatically at pre-determined times as part of the normal operation of the operating system.

If you are an end-user seeking to resolve issues for boot/resume performance on your PC, we recommend that you contact the vendor from whom you purchased the PC. For information from Microsoft on specific issues, you can search Knowledge Base for Windows XP product issues related to "resume time." Knowledge Base is a free information service available at: http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=fh;%5Bln%5D;kbh owto

You can also post questions to the Microsoft Windows XP Newsgroups at: http://www.microsoft.com/communities

If you are a software developer or system designer seeking assistance for using Bootvis.exe in your development efforts, please work with your usual Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) contacts for developer support. To get developer support if you do not already have a contact, please see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/support/

The Bootvis.exe tool is no longer available from this site.

Symantec AV often lags behind in protection and definitions. The worst recent example that comes to mind is the spread of hacktool.rootkit (aka about a million things), which was implemented in countless malware releases. Symantec was AFAIK the only mainstream antivirus program that missed detecting it as it was installed. My flavors of choice are:
AVG Free antivirus
LavaSoft Adaware
and Spybot Search and Destroy.

Very little can get by this trifecta. When I suspect that a machine has received an infection that these three can't remove, I research the individual piece of malware on sites like CastleCops or I just Google it by process name.

I also keep archives of RootKitRevealer, peperfix.exe and HijackThis.

It doesn't play nice with uninstallation at all.

Even after uninstalling, you need to download and use a special cleaning tool to get rid of all of the files and registry entries that piece of crap software leaves behind.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf /docid/2005033108162039/ (Skip all of the instructions for reinstallation of Norton, just run the tool.)

Alternatively, get it here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Norton_Removal_Tool_SymN RT_d4749.html

Uninstalling Norton has been known to hose systems, so be careful (make backups, etc) before attempting to uninstall. And make sure you run the tool :)

I had good luck w/ the unofficial Windows 98 second edition update (forget the name though).

I've been meaning to try the SP5 for Windows 2000:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4817.html

Anyone had any luck w/ it?

William

If you want to disable the stupid fricking windows key, get "I hate this key" and watch your FPS performance improve

http://www.majorgeeks.com/I_Hate_This_Key_d3805.ht ml

Or... go on ebay and look for a vintage IBM keyboard with no stupid Windows key on it

You know it is bad when Norton produce an uninstaller for their own tools!

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Norton_Removal_Tool_SymN RT_d4749.html

Works nicely, although it can't be scripted.

Do your research; it's a little more complicated than that. The index.dat files in Windows are not deleted when you clear your cache and history, you can't even touch them under normal circumstances, and when you do delete them, they reappear on the next reboot. If you still don't understand what I'm talking about, look at the contents of those files.

    This should answer your question:

http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=12

HijackThis

Vundo removal tool

Some Free removal tools and the Bitdefender Live CD

...there won't be an immediate slashdotting, since MajorGeek has a Torrent of the download posted already

MajorGeeks Torrent here

Here's a few apps/tweak files I haven't seen mentioned.

NTRegOpt: http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
Defrags XP's registry, reduces the overall size.

Microsoft Bootvis: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=664
A tool made by MS specifically for optimizing XP boot up times.

MaxTweaks: http://www.tech52.com/ (scroll down page for file and description)
A cumulative XP tweak and fix install file. Highlight: Enables "Show hidden devices" in the Device Manager to display unused devices - like what you would see if you booted 98 in safe mode.