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I feel I should elaborate on the previous post, so I am going to describe how to install and configure WinDbg so you can "try this at home". I am only doing this on a Windows XP machine, so if you are using a different platform/version, your mileage may vary.

First, install the Windows Symbol Package required for your operating system. I am using XP SP2, so I chose this Symbol Package.

Then install the Debugging Tools. Since I am using Windows XP on a 32-bit architecture (x86), I chose this package.

Install both the symbols package and the Debug Tools package. Restart if requested.

1.) Start > (All) Programs > Debugging Tools for Windows > WinDbg
2.) Press Control+S (or File > Symbol File Path) to bring up the "Symbol Search Path" dialog
3.) Enter the path you chose when you installed the symbol package (by default, it is C:\windows\symbols). Close WinDbg. If you are asked to save workspace "base", tell it not to ask again, and choose Yes.
4.) Download NTCrash2.zip and extract NTCrash2.exe out of the 'release' folder in the zip, and store it on your desktop (or wherever you like).
5.) Configure your recovery options as directed below:
5a) Right-click "My Computer", > Properties > Advanced tab > Startup and Recovery > Settings (see Figure 1)

Figure 1:

—

5b) Under the "System Failure" group box, checkmark all three checkmarks (Write an event, Send an alert, Automatically restart) if not checked already. In the "Write debugging information" sub-group box, change the drop down box to "Small memory dump (64KB)" and ensure that the "Small dump directory" is set to "%SystemRoot%\Minidump" (without the quotation marks) (see Figure 2)

Figure 2:

At this point, you should navigate to the minidump folder under the Windows folder of your system drive, and delete all of the files in there. (e.g., Start > Run > %SystemRoot%\Minidump)

Note: When you are done with this experiment, you should disable the "Automatically restart" checkmark in the "System Failure" group box. This way, if you get an actual fatal error, you will be able to see the STOP error code. We want it to automatically restart for this experiment for convenience (so that you do not have to hold the power button to turn your machine all the way off when we make it crash).

With all of these settings and tools in place, we are ready to begin. Close any open windows or dialogs, and double click NTCrash2.exe. Wait until your system reboots itself (crashes). If your system reboots itself, Windows will most likely want to send an error report when you return to Windows again. Do not send the error report (but if you do send it, Microsoft will probably tell you there was a fault caused by a device driver or service, or similar).

After the crash, launch WinDbg. Press Control+D (or File > Open Crash Dump…) and nagivate your way to C:\Windows\minidump (or wherever your Windows directory is. You can even type "%SystemRoot%\Minidump" in the file name box to jump directly to it). Select the minidump file. A bunch of nerd words will appear in a new sub-window. At the bottom is a command prompt area. You should type "!analyze -v" to get a stack dump. You'll probably see a file name or two that belongs to the service or driver that crashed when NTCrash2.exe was pounding it. The very first time I experimented with this whole procedure, I had Daemon tools 3.47 installed. I had known that the D-Tools service is called d347bus because it asks you for a name when you install it (and I left it the default name). d347bus was listed as the offending file when I analyzed the crash dump. Immediately thereafter, I downloaded and installed Daemon Tools 4.0 (be sure to uncheck the "DAEMON Tools Search Bar" when you install it – it's ad-supported (it's not malware or spyware, however). After I installed D-Tools 4, I was unable to make the system crash ever again.

As ToastyX has told me, input validation is a very basic, but commonly overlooked, programming procedure. It's the first thing your program should do! You can't just accept garbage from anywhere and then just allow Windows to throw an exception over it. Thankfully, the Daemon Tools team corrected the problem in the 4.0 release. I also noticed that most machines that have Symantec products installed (such as Norton Internet Security 2005) blow up when NTCrash2 pounds on them. I don't recall the exact filename, but it was one of the many, many services that gets installed when you use Symantec/Norton products.

I've been using Mark Russinovich's NTCrash2.exe utility for quite a while now, and I must say that it is an excellent piece of kernel stress-test software.

So far, I've discovered that every Symantec/Norton service (that I've tested thus far) will crash when using NTCrash2. Daemon Tools 3.47 crashes as well. Fortunately, Daemon Tools 4.0 is immune, and avast! antivirus is also immune.

I have discovered quite a lot of things that are possible with Dial-a-fix (or even other programs I could make) so I have a lot of development ahead.
The first thing I'm going to add to DAF is a networking/firewall groupbox.
Stay tuned…

Norton Antivirus is at it again, and by 'it', I mean sucking.

This customer's machine has OVER 70 GIGABYTES of viruses QUARANTINED. They are all the EXACT SAME FILE. 47,713 BYTES times a kajillion. I couldn't even tell you how many files there were because it would have taken hours to get a directory listing. I've begun an rmdir /s /q (because explorer.exe is too slow for this).

What is wrong with Symantec? Why do they continue to make (and furthermore, how are they continuing to sell so many copies of) a program where the quarantine folder can take up your entire hard drive (ruining Windows completely)? Why is it always impossible to install or uninstall their products, and why does it usually break the BITS service (ruining Windows Update, which Dial-a-fix can fix, thankfully) when you try to use their horrible SymNRT to remove their horrible product? Why do their products break each other, and why is it nearly impossible to install a new version of one of their programs after an older version has been removed? Why does every brand new product of theirs (such as Antivirus 2006) already have 30MB of core updates, right after it was shipped (not including virus/spyware definitions)? Why isn't there yet a symantecsucks.com or something? :P

It's been deleting for ~5 minutes, and I have 2.5 GB of free space back so far… ~67 more gigabytes to go. :(

Edit: This is why I use avast! (on customer machines; on my own personal machine I don't use antivirus or spyware protection)

Edit 2: 2:37 PM (EST) and 20 GB has been deleted thus far.

Final edit: It took approximately 6 hours to delete ~75 GB worth of the same exact 47,713 byte file.

I use Google Personalized Home. You can add a lot of pre-determined content, but you can also add most anything that has an RSS feed (like DjLizard.net!)

.NET Framework 2.0 is now available on Windows Update.

It's also available as a standalone download from the Download Center.

You can pick up a silent-install version of .NET framework from the excellent RyanVM website.

Dial-a-fix (Light) (Full) has been published on Betanews FileForum. It has come to my attention that some of the reviewers need to get a clue. Giving the program a 3 because you don't understand what you're supposed to be dialing? Come on, it's just a play on words.

abraxisr said:

used it restarted xp
had 2 reinstall video drivers
system ran saddly slow
windows update was running{crauling} so went 2 update page + found that every update since sp2
had gone missing 2 hours later + several restarts
{2 were i had to reset bois settings}+ and everthings nearly back 2 were i was 2 begin with
thus: needs 2 be more idiot proof
still its free + i was pretty bored zo thankz

I'm sorry, abraxisr, that my program has absolutely nothing to do with your video drivers, slow system, missing updates, your idiocy, or your boredom. This program fixes very specific issues. (not to mention that it can't actually CAUSE issues)

Peace the fuck out.

Edit: FileForum's DAF Full entry got over 1000 downloads in just a few hours, versus combined DjLizard.net + Softpedia downloads that took several months to achieve. Shit!

DAF v0.54 is ready.
* Changed default behavior of Windows Installer checkmarks (2.0 and 3.0): they are now unchecked by default
* Windows Installer 2.0 checkmark will disable all other checkmarks for safety purposes (because you must reboot after installing it)
* Removed a few command-line switches from the XML parser installers; they should run silently on all platforms again
* DAF now stops BITS when doing 'Flush SoftwareDistribution', and the status bar is more descriptive about the process
* DAF now stops BITS, WUAUSERV, and CRYPTSVC when deleting Catroot2 (just in case), and the status bar is more descriptive as well
* Minor dialog adjustments, and the addition of a Paypal donation link to the contact pane

In the next version, I hope to add a new pane which fixes network connectivity issues (thanks for reminding me of that, Fred). I have to give Fred shout-outs because he seems to be the biggest Dial-a-fix fan. :P

Microsoft has developed a plugin for Mozilla-based browsers that allows you to validate your copy of Windows. That's… remarkable! Most of the techs in my shop were stunned when I told them about this. Thanks to Tarun of Lunarsoft.net for this information.

Also, a Dial-a-fix update is coming very soon (hi Fred).

Between Something Awful, DjLizard.net, Lunarsoft.net, and Softpedia, Dial-a-fix has been downloaded over 1000 times. Softpedia alone has 702 unique downloads. Yay.

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