antivirus Archives

Slipstream drivers into Windows XP

Dave Farquhar Windows June 28, 2011December 3, 2021antivirus, IBM, lenovo, nlite, sp3, thinkpad, USB flash drive, Windows XP

For about a month after a new version of Windows is released, it supports just about any hardware you’re likely to throw at it. And after that, it’s not quite that easy. And once the version is end of life, it’s harder still. So here’s an easy way to slipstream drivers into Windows XP. For your retro PC that you use offline, of course. Don’t go online with this system.

I stumbled across Driverpacks back in March, and I’ve finally had a chance to spend some serious time working with them. What they mean is that if you’re willing to do some work, you can make a disc that will install Windows with functional drivers for virtually any computer in existence.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

dfarq.homeip.net

First impressions: Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper

Dave Farquhar security, Windows June 22, 2011antivirus, AOL, apple, Bit Defender, malware, PE, Standalone System Sweeper, Windows XP

Microsoft has released an antivirus/antispyware live CD that runs in the Windows PE environment called Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper. I wouldn’t use it as a full replacement for a Linux-based live CD from an antivirus vendor such as Bit Defender, which I’ve written about before. It is, however, a good supplement–a second opinion. Nothing catches everything, after all.

The idea behind all of these is to boot into a sterile environment to scan a dormant hard drive for things that evade or disable your normal antivirus software. The need for this grows just about every day, as there’s a lot of really nasty stuff out there these days. It’s not a substitute for normal antivirus software–it’s what you call on if and when normal antivirus software fails and a malware infestation prevents normal use of the computer.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Removing the Windows XP Repair scareware

Dave Farquhar security, Windows June 21, 2011antimalware, antivirus, Bit Defender, CA, firefox, firewall, malware, Microsoft Security Essentials, Open Office, oracle, Standalone System Sweeper, Windows XP

Windows XP Repair is a fake system optimization and repair tool. It takes over the computer almost completely, and it’s a pain to remove. Worse yet, there’s at least one version floating around right now that standard no antivirus/antimalware tool I threw at it recognized.

Here’s how I removed it for someone.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Disadvantages of Windows 98 and 98SE

Dave Farquhar Windows May 21, 2011June 28, 20251990s, antivirus, firefox, spyware, vista, windows 2000, windows 7, windows 98, windows 9x, windows me, windows nt, Windows XP

Many years ago, I wrote about the disadvantages of Windows 3.1 because I started noticing people searching for that. Now, I see people asking the same question about Windows 98. I spent 9 months of my life ripping Windows 98 apart and putting it back together again and writing about it, so I know it well.

As much of an improvement as Windows 98 was over Windows 3.1 and even Windows 95, it, too, is feeling the effects of time. Windows 98SE was the best of the Windows 9x series (better than its successor, Windows ME), but there are better things to run today.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

When Windows gets a file association with .exe files, get a hammer. This one.

Dave Farquhar Windows April 28, 2011April 28, 2011antivirus, McAfee

I spent a maddening couple of days with a Windows computer that somehow had gotten a bogus file association with .exe files, which roughly translates to, “Windows quit running any programs.” Microsoft has a fix for that. Except neither solution worked. Nor did connecting via remote registry, or even renaming their automated fixer-upper to have a .com extension (presumably because it turned around and tried to download and run a .exe). It’s too bad that didn’t work, as I was pretty proud of myself for remembering that little trick.

So where’s my hammer?

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Be wary of unexpected e-mail attachments

Dave Farquhar security April 17, 2011antivirus

Just an observation: I’ve received two unexpected e-mail attachments from people I don’t know in the past hour. I figured the first one was an honest mistake–for some reason I get e-mail intended for other people from time to time–but when I got a second one and it, too, was little more than a smiley and an attachment, I started to think something strange is going on.

Your antivirus software should catch anything floating around, but if it’s too new, you can still get bitten. It’s never a good idea to open unexpected attachments. Bad things can happen.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

How to find out what add-ons are slowing down Firefox

Dave Farquhar Software April 4, 2011antivirus, firefox, malware, Malware Domains

Here’s a site worth bookmarking. Add-ons are the big thing Firefox offers that the other browsers don’t, but it sometimes comes at the price of performance. And I guess Mozilla is tired of that, so now they’re testing add-on speed and publishing the results at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/performance/ .
Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Scripting Windows sysadmin tasks

Dave Farquhar Windows February 25, 2011July 15, 2017antivirus, Disk Cleanup, net view, PHP, PST

I mentioned a couple of days ago a coworker’s philosophy about sysadmins and scripts that automate most tasks.

Here’s a site that has a lot of useful one-liners. http://www.robvanderwoude.com/ntadmincommands.php
Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

How to audit your PC’s software for updates

Dave Farquhar security February 20, 2011February 20, 2011antivirus, Information Assurance, psi, symantec, vulnerability

Sometimes you like to use backdated software, perhaps to avoid bloatware. But perhaps you have some old software you’ve forgotten about. If you want to know, Secunia has a free product called PSI that will scan your system and alert you to any outdated software you may have. Then you can either update it, if it’s something you use and want to keep up to date, or uninstall it. Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Read this if you use ICQ

Dave Farquhar security January 25, 2011antivirus, malware, Malware Domains

If you still use ICQ for some reason, there’s fake antivirus malware being distributed through it. The story is making its way through various news sources.

You basically have two options, beyond not clicking on anything that claims to be an antivirus warning while ICQ is running. Stop using ICQ, or do the malware domains hosts file hack.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net