GuruNews, Volume 9 Number 17, 4-30-09

Thu Apr 30 18:19:52 PDT 2009

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Vol. 9, No. 17                           

4-30-09

1 The evils of System Restore    

2 Spies

3 Narrow-band, TW/AOL split, no more AutoPlay, gambling bad… SMASH!

4 Rootkit killer

5 That medical emergency just got worse                

6 Formatting with XP

An email this week pointed out a problem I’ve been meaning to address for some time:  The drawbacks with using Windows System Restore.

The emailer removed AVG on two computers and installed Avast and ran into some issues.  He uninstalled Avast and did a System Restore to a point before installation of Avast.  One of the computers wouldn’t start Internet Explorer, generating an error about an access violation in an AVG file.

In his case, the System Restore corrupted the AVG toolbar.  He disabled that add-on and IE started correctly, which demonstrates that System Restore isn’t the panacea that Microsoft paints it to be for recovering from bad installs.

While it’s generally true that SR (I’ll use that from here on out just for brevity) won’t remove user created files like documents or pictures, what it doesn’t guarantee is a seamless flashback to an earlier configuration.

What you’re also misinformed about is malware.  If you ever contract some sort of infection and you have SR enabled, every Restore Point prior to the cleaning is a time bomb.  If you “roll back” to that date after you’ve cleaned the malware out you’ll likely put it right back into your PC.

In that respect SR is a dangerous security breach just waiting to happen but Microsoft, so far, has yet to fix it.

The “System Volume Information” files that SR uses are hidden and can’t be cleaned by most spyware/virus scanning tools.  Microsoft worked hard to protect them, to the detriment of end-users who end up spending and re-spending to have their systems professionally cleaned after each use of this wolf in sheep’s clothing.

This is why I turn the beast off on all my computers.  To do this right click on My Computer and click Properties.  Click the System Restore tab and check the box next to Turn off System Restore on all drives.    Apply and OK and reboot the PC and it’s gone.

No more wasted hard drive space and no more malware threat.  Do a full scan with all your security programs and you’ll be able to clear everything from those files.  

If you want to switch programs to do specific tasks, be it office tasks or virus protection, just uninstall the old program and install the new one.  If things don’t work out uninstall the new one and reinstall the old one.  Sometimes you’ll run across an uninstaller that’s imperfect but there are always ways around that.

Don’t depend on SR, it will likely just cause more problems than it solves.

My feeling is if a program load or a system change causes enough havoc to necessitate a roll back you should probably just wipe it all out and reload from scratch.

If you want a true System restore you’d be better served to do a fresh load of Windows, install all available updates, install the most important programs and hook up an external hard drive.

Now get a free imaging program like those mentioned at http://tinyurl.com/5msyas.  Of those I’ve used DriveImage but it’s a little clunky with the interface.  EaseUs sounds like it has a simple interface and PING, which I’ve downloaded but not installed, will actually burn a bootable CD or DVD to restore your image if you keep your load small enough to fit.

This option puts a fresh load on your computer that’s ready to use out of the box.  No drivers to load, just the updates after the image was made to download, no major software to install.

This is a true system restore, and SR ain’t it.

Kevin Mefford, Editor

pcguru at microdome.net

Terry Wise

www.ratland.com

Tech News of the Week

That ultra-high-speed broadband you’re so happy with could drop to dialup-speed due to ever-increasing use of bandwidth:

http://tinyurl.com/d397wb

After a marriage of eight years that resulted in $100 billion in losses, Time Warner is considering filing for divorce from AOL:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/business/media/30warner.html?_r=1

In a long-overdue security fix Microsoft will disable AutoPlay for flash and other writable media:

http://tinyurl.com/cbvgf6

Minnesota pulls a Kentucky and attempts to block online gambling sites.  Put down those cards, citizen:

http://wcco.com/consumer/online.gambling.block.2.997257.html

Matthew Dattilo
thepcgurus at gmail.com 
www.mattstodayinhistory.com

Download of the Week

One of the more dangerous pieces of malware that might infect you is a rootkit. This software uses tricky techniques to shield itself from many anti-spyware, anti-malware and anti-virus programs. A rootkit hides deep in your system and allows someone to take complete control of your PC without your knowledge. 

Some anti-virus tools, such as Avast, claim to detect and kill rootkits. Many don't. But even if you are using an anti-virus tool that claims to detect them you can't be too safe. F-Secure Blacklight Rootkit Eliminator is a freebie designed to do one thing, and one thing alone: detect and kill rootkits. 

The program looks inside your PC's folders, files and hidden processes, looking for signs that you've been infected with a rootkit. It then tells you whether your system is rootkit-free or possibly infected. It's free here: 

http://f-secure-blacklight-rootkit-eliminator.en.softonic.com/ 

Carlita Lupino

Cards57 at gmail.com

Threat of the Week 

Of late one had to worry about bacterial and viral infections while in the hospital, but never one like this.

Conficker, the widespread and much feared botnet worm, which still hasn’t dome much outside of blocking security sites, has infested hundreds of medical machines.  We’re not talking about regular ol’ PCs here; we’re talking MRI controllers and cardiac monitors.

ATMs and phone switches I can understand, but medical equipment?  C’mon.  Why is this stuff connected to a network anywhere near an Internet LAN?  These types of machines need to be on enclosed networks, isolated from other Internet-enabled networks found in every hospital in the country.  An infected bank server is problematic and could be devastating, but knocking all the monitors offline in an ICU could kill you.

Time for the Joint Commission to add another section to the accreditation criteria.

Kevin Mefford

pcguru at microdome.net

Email Question of the Week

Q:  Could you please furnish information for re-formatting a hard drive, I am using Microsoft XP as my o.s.

A:  Reboot the PC with the XP disk in the optical drive.  Hit the space bar or Enter when prompted to hit a key to boot from CD.

You'll get a blue boot screen and you'll see a lot of drivers loading across the bottom.  After a couple of minutes you'll get a menu asking you want you want to do.  Hit Enter to install XP.  Next is the EULA, hit F8 to accept.

Now if a screen comes up asking if you want to repair a Windows load hit Esc.  On the next screen you'll get a list of partitions asking where you want to install Windows.  If there's just one select it and hit D, then Enter, then L.  If there's more than one and you're sure you don't use them, select and hit D and Enter for each one.  If you aren't sure just remove the largest one, which is likely the primary.

Now select Unallocated space and hit Enter.  Select Format using NTFS (you can use Quick format if you have had no indications that the hard drive may be iffy) and hit Enter.  From that point on it will format, copy files and reboot into a mousable GUI.  Just read the prompts and follow the instructions and this will put the fresh load of Windows on the PC.

Keep in mind you'll probably need to reload drivers for you network card(s), sound, video, modem and motherboard plus any peripherals so you might want to have all of that handy beforehand.

One other tip.  Disconnect any USB devices prior to the reload and don't plug them back in until you install the drivers for each.  Some of the driver loads will prompt you to connect the device during installation.

If you have a card reader in the PC this is also a USB device but it plugs into the motherboard internally.  You'll have to get into the case, trace the cable and unhook that as well.  After the reload you can plug that back in anytime the PC is off.  It won't require drivers.

Hope that helps and keep us posted...

Kevin Mefford

pcguru at microdome.net

Contact info and legal stuff

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