DjLizard.net » Beta

Dial-a-fix update – for real!

DjLizard — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:20:18 +0000

I've started Dial-a-fix over and here is what I have so far:

As you can see it's mostly empty (for now) but there are great plans.
Currently, the "Scan" button on the "Find issues" tab looks for over 40 separate problems relating to the registry, services/drivers, shell/Explorer.exe, and Internet Explorer. It also displays restrictive policies.

It's written in Delphi and coming along nicely. A few rules lists will be moved to outside of the program .exe for easier access (such as restrictive policies). It will support languages. It will support Vista, Server 2003, and XP Pro x64. It will still support Windows 98. You can even resize or maximize the window now.

I spent all weekend working on it, and I plan to spend all of next weekend working on it as well. I have a lot of work to do but I'll keep everyone posted.

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Dial-a-fix++

DjLizard — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:24:06 +0000

With each subsequent release of Delphi, Borland has put roadblock after roadblock up for me. I love the language, but not necessarily the VCL, IDE, or the company.

The latest is that Delphi 2007 has been optimized to work in x64 and Vista… but you have to pay expensive upgrade fees to get these features that should have (in my opinion) been released as a patch for Delphi 2005. It's $899 for a new user license. The VCL is very unaware of Unicode, too, which in a modern development environment is ridiculous.

I was using Turbo Delphi 2005 (which is free, but limited in that you can't install optional components and there's no command line compiler). Was. There are too many limitations for me to be able to continue.

TNTUnicode was just sold to TMS Components, so a once-free component (which I was going to use to add Unicode support to Dial-a-fix) is now a for-pay component. I was going to figure out how to purchase Delphi 2007 but I'm just too depressed to do so. One of the main reasons that Dial-a-fix updates have been delayed is my frustration with limitations. The other reason is my life, which has recently resolved into normality again. I'll be able to start working on this stuff after the upcoming radio show on Monday.

Also, there's hundreds of bugs in Delphi's VCL that cause stupid things to happen (double buffering isn't even supported very well, for instance. Unicode support is non-existent, as I said above).

I think I'm going to switch to C++. This is going to be a daunting task (especially since I don't know C++, but then again, I didn't know Object Pascal either, and I made the transition pretty easily even though it had been 10 years since I worked with Pascal) but it needs to be done.

Microsoft's free version of Visual C++ isn't very limited at all. That's okay though, as I received a free copy of Visual Studio 2005 Standard from Microsoft. Thanks Microsoft! I also got Office 2007 Professional for free. I've never seen an opportunity to receive a free copy of any versions of Delphi; if any have existed, I missed the opportunity. Still, Delphi, which is a great teaching language, isn't very accessible unless you're actually a student at a university (at which point you get a massive discount). I'm just a hobbyist trying to write freeware and there's no Turbo Delphi 2007 in sight. I don't know if they're going to release a Turbo edition of Delphi 2007, but it doesn't matter anymore – I don't want to upgrade. I've removed Delphi from my system and have installed Visual Studio 2005 Standard in preparation to start over again. Besides, even if there was a Delphi 2007, it wouldn't allow me to install things like TMSUnicode, etc. Installing third-party components to add support for something that should have been in Delphi since Windows NT 4 is always fun.

Besides all of this annoyance, I should be writing this in C++ anyway, as I'm starting to get deeper and deeper into Win32, having to translate C++ into Object Pascal every time I need to know how to do something lower level. MSDN was written with C++ in mind. I might as well use the language that Win32 was documented in and be done with it. No more translation required! No more trying to figure out what esoteric data type I'm supposed to use ("cardinal"? What the hell is that?)

This all means that Dial-a-fix will go even faster and will become more intimate with your system, letting you know about problems that no other software has ever tried to look for. The filter driver article I just wrote is only one example; The new (Codename) Dial-a-fix++ will scan all of your drivers for missing filters and even ask your permission to repair them for you.

Wish me luck.

—

PS: Carey Holzman of Computer America mentioned Dial-a-fix again! Check out the 1st hour of the May 2nd show.

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HijackThis updated to version 2.0.0 beta

fredvries — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 08:22:09 +0000

We’ve waited a long time for this… At last Merijn Bellekom has finished a brand new version of his most famous program, HijackThis.

And that’s not the only bit of news about HijackThis. It seems that Merijn has managed to sell the program to Trend Micro. Merijn's own explanation is here.

HijackThis 2.0.0 beta is downloadable here.

Changes:
- AnalyzeThis added for log file statistics
- Recognizes Windows Vista and IE7
- Fixed a few bugs in the O23 method
- Fixed a bug in the O22 method (SharedTaskScheduler)
- Did a few tweaks on the log format
- Fixed and improved ADS Spy
- Improved Itty Bitty Procman (processes are frozen before they are killed)
- Added listing of O4 autoruns from other users
- Added listing of the Policies Run items in O4 method, used by SmitFraud trojan
- Added /silentautolog parameter for system admins
- Added /deleteonreboot [file] parameter for system admins
- Added O24 – ActiveX Desktop Components enumeration
- Added Enhanced Security Confirguration (ESC) Zones to O15 Trusted Sites check

© fredvries for DjLizard.net, 2007. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-spyware, Beta, Hijack This!

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Where's Dial-a-fix and why haven't you answered my email?

DjLizard — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 02:20:49 +0000

Every step forward seems like a step backward. I used to have a 1.0 design (which I posted about before) that was really neat, but I had to keep working on the current beta line to keep it maintained (and now it's fallen into disrepair). Then I became very busy at work and didn't even have time to answer any of my emails (about 500) for about a month. I apologize if I haven't answered your email. I will get to it, actually, starting Saturday morning. I'll answer all my emails and then begin working on Dial-a-fix again, because it needs overhauling (again – did I say "again" yet?). Every time I plop down a foundation (like that 1.0 teaser post), it comes up short and I have to start over again.

Again. Again. There, I've used it so much it's no longer a word.

Good thing Tarun is over there at the Lunarsoft.net forums helping out with Dial-a-fix support, or else everyone would be in the dark.

Oh yeah and Ninja Rope, I am still going to use ntdel as planned and The Notifier will live once again. Too bad it dies with Vista; Vista doesn't have Winlogon\Notify keys. Edit: Actually, Vista does. They're just in a different place and have a different syntax. Take a look at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Control
Winlogon
Notifications
Components

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First Vista repair

DjLizard — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 20:23:31 +0000

I fixed my first Vista problem last week. My boss brought in his Vista RC1 machine and it was acting oddly. Explorer.exe would take 50% CPU usage (two core CPU) and the Start Menu's pin list wouldn't show up at all. Everything else was working properly (including the All Programs list, and other functions of the Start Menu).

I had to find out whether the pin list problem was the cause or the effect, so I began searching the internet for the location of the pin list. It's nearly impossible to find this information.

After a half hour of digging around with Sysinternals Filemon and Regmon, I wasn't getting anywhere. I used Sysinternals strings.exe on shell32.dll (which I had previously discovered is where the pin list calls & code are stored) and finally found out where the pin list is stored: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage
The value Favorites contains the pin list itself. I found that on this Vista machine, there was nothing wrong with the Favorites value. It was the ProgramsCache value that had become corrupted. After deleting the key and restarting Explorer, the pin list came back up and all of the CPU usage went away. Problem solved. (This all works the same in Windows XP.)

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Dial-a-fix v0.60.0.24 released! (oops)

DjLizard — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 18:12:36 +0000

I had to fix a theme double buffering bug that would cause DAF to be mostly black when using themes.
So if you downloaded yesterday's .23, you'll want to download .24 to replace it.

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Dial-a-fix v0.60.0.23 released!

DjLizard — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 03:02:03 +0000

* Slowed tooltip wait speed to 250ms (from 0ms) – tooltips are no longer annoying!
* Re-added "Hide disabled policies" checkmark that mysteriously disappeared from previous build
* Sped up policy scanning
* Reduced startup lag slightly
* Double buffered all forms and most controls (less flicker when moving/resizing certain dialogs), except the About box's rich text areas (Delphi 7's standard TRichEdit can't double buffer)
* The complete version number is now listed in the titlebar/caption, as well as the log
* The Dial-a-fix download is now a single .zip archive which includes secedit
* Until further notice from Microsoft, Dial-a-fix 0.60.0.23 now ignores browseui and shdocvw when Internet Explorer 7 is present (because attempting to register them produces "Unspecified error" – it is unknown at this time whether this is a Microsoft bug or if Microsoft intended this behavior for the new versions of these files)

http://wiki.DjLizard.net/Dial-a-fix_beta

Get support at Lunarsoft.net.

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IE7 Toolbar Mayhem

DjLizard — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 14:34:35 +0000

http://www.windows-noob.com/review/ie7/

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Vista build 5728 publicly released

DjLizard — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 19:16:34 +0000

Vista build 5728 publicly released

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Dial-a-fix v0.57.7 deprecated

DjLizard — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 22:54:31 +0000

Since 0.57.7 is incapable of reporting Win32 errors, has no logging facility, and has various bugs (Win2k 'version.dll' access violation, etc), it has been deprecated in favor of the latest v0.60 beta until Dial-a-fix v1.0 is finalized (which will take me forever to finish). Please visit the Dial-a-fix v0.60 Wiki article and download Dial-a-fix there.

I have redirected the download locations for all forms of v0.57.7 to this post.

I have also updated Dial-a-fix v0.60 to v0.60.0.16 to bring it up to speed a little bit (and remove the Repair permissions bug where it has the potential to remove limited user accounts from the Windows XP welcome screen — they still existed as users, however).

Do not use Dial-a-fix v0.57.7.

Thank you.

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Windows Vista RC1 keys available

DjLizard — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 18:31:07 +0000

You can now request a free Windows Vista RC1 product key, and then download the Windows Vista DVD ISO. A valid Passport account is required. The evaluation version of Windows Vista is good until June 1st, 2007, which is months after Vista makes it to retail stores. Each product key is good for 10 computers.

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How to change Browzar's home and search page

fredvries — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:11:22 +0000

The type of browser you use depends usually more on your personal preferences than, say, issues of security. Internet Explorer is widely credited with design flaws that constantly need patching. Switching to Firefox is an obvious move because that is less prone to malicious attacks. The problem is that Firefox is technically still in beta and some people don't want to experience the faults that are inherent to beta products.

And so others move in. One of the new players is a browser called Browzar.

Browzar claims to eliminate all traces of your web activities and it has taken a lot of flak over that very bold claim and other issues.

A test by SpywareInfo revealed that the first claim is not entirely correct. SpywareInfo was able to find a copy of the last page visited in the browser cache. They also found some cached objects, saved by the Java plug-in. It did not save cookies or URL history, as far as they could tell.

See the entire article here.

Another problem are persistent claims that Browzar itself is spyware. This is not quite true but it does open to a hard-coded start page and that start page is a pay-per-click search engine.
SpywareInfo writes that there is no way to change that start page to a different address or, for that matter, any other options. It also has a search bar that uses the same search engine.

Roger Karlsson (creator of Bazooka and Koffix Blocker) has found a solution for the above problem by using a Hex editor. Take a look at his solution for changing Browzar's start page.

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Dial-a-fix v0.57.7

DjLizard — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:28:16 +0000

I suggest that any remaining people using Dial-a-fix v0.57.7 should migrate to the current v0.60 beta until I have a public build of v1.0. No one should really be using v0.57.7 any more. There are issues with v0.57.7 that have already been resolved (such as Access Violations in version.dll/the mscoree.dll hang) and they are listed on the wiki in the Known Issues section. Please be familiar with this.

I'm going to redesign the log pane again – it looks neat as it is, but it is not productive enough for my tastes, and it takes up a lot of space in the code. I'm going to be adding Unicode capabilities and translation capabilities as well, and those are going to add even more to the code.

After all is said and done, I expect Dial-a-fix v1.0 to be over 2 megabytes (!). Since Dial-a-fix contains no shared code, and the only other penalty (that I know of – unless I'm mistaken) for PE compression is a slower start up time, I'm going to continue to use UPX to pack Dial-a-fix's .exe. I expect this to cut the size down more than half.

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Superfail update

DjLizard — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 23:48:55 +0000

In Superfail, I described a problem afflicting Windows 2000 machines. I believe it has to do with one of the Windows Updates from June, but I can't be sure. It's still affecting people right now.

These are the steps I usually use to fix it:

(edit): 0) Make sure you're using the latest build of Dial-a-fix.
1) Reboot so you're starting with a clean slate.
2) Run all of DAF section #5 (Registration center).
3) Run DAF section #3 (WU/WUAU).
4) Start > Run > rundll32.exe setupapi.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %systemroot%\inf\au.inf
(Note: the above command is one huge line — it has been wrapped for easier reading)
5) Immediately merge this .reg file: win2ksvchost.reg
6) Reboot.
7) Try Windows Update again. If it fails, try clicking "Flush SoftwareDistribution" in Dial-a-fix (and answer No) and then try Windows Update again.

Some combinations of the above steps usually fix it. Each machine seems to freak out a bit differently, so your results may vary.

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Dial-a-fix beta – v0.60.0.13

DjLizard — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:40:52 +0000

I created a wiki entry for this, and the changelog is in there (not many changes this time around), so visit that to find out more/download it/get the MD5sum/etc.

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Dial-a-fix public update 4 and bonus: TheNotifier

DjLizard — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 14:11:44 +0000

Download: Dial-a-fix 2006-06-22 (md5sum: 6cad3d43cfc69f99d6b702b596aec31b) (and secedit.exe, if you need the repair permissions tool)

Edit: Oops, I had forgotten to give 'Auto-scroll' anchors, so it was floating around when you resize the log pane. This has been fixed and I re-uploaded the file. Please re-download :)

This is unofficially Release Candidate 1. Are there any problems left that I should address before releasing it, or any quick tools I should create at the last minute? I'm about read to start re-writing the wiki entries and prepping for release!

Changelog:

* Added new policies: DoNotAllowXPSP2, UpdatesDisableNotify
* Added Auto-scroll capability to log pane
* Made the text of the "Flush SoftwareDistribution" confirmation dialog clearer
* Fixed some typos
* Cleaned up some internal code structures

Here's a bonus program: TheNotifier. I need everyone who uses Windows 2000 Professional, XP, Server 2003, or Vista to run this program. All it does (for now) is:
* Lists all Winlogon/Notify entries
* Lets you jump to a Winlogon/Notify registry entry
* Allows you to filter out the "known-good" entries

What I need people to do is:
1) Checkmark "Hide known".
2) Comment on this post and let me know the Key and the DLLName of anything that still shows up after hiding known (unless someone already posted yours, or unless it's blank – blank is good).

That's pretty much it. This is going to help me with a future spyware-removal application. Thanks!

Edit: forgot to mention – there is now a DjLizard.net software forum over at Lunarsoft.net.

TheNotifier changelog:
2006-06-23: v0.0.0.22
* Added macdriveitunespatch.dll, mcpstub.dll, lmiinit.dll, navlogon.dll

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Dial-a-fix public beta update 3

DjLizard — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 03:12:45 +0000

Download: Dial-a-fix 2006-06-18 (md5sum: 7c08efb8840b9bb451e84ee8fba58ab7)
(and secedit.exe, if you need the repair permissions tool)

Changelog:

* Rewrote policy scanner *again* to address all limitations… now it is very informative – now uses a ListView and can even spot policies that are using the wrong REG_type (such as REG_SZ when REG_DWORD was expected) – it is also extremely optimized – only needs 1680 queries to find everything it knows
* Removed one dumb policy (not really restrictive): NoRecentDocsHistory
* Updated Help dialog to have minimize/maximimize/resize functions
* Updated all version numbers to reflect "v0.60"
* Removed "Debug mode" checkmark, as it is useless now that Dial-a-fix correctly reports DLL registration errors (thanks to native registration capability)
* Added "Suppress errors" in its place, to hide all error dialog boxes that would normally appear, but the code for this is not yet complete, so it remains disabled for now
* Flush SoftwareDistribution button and GO button now disable the Tools dialog pane and its GO button so that you can't run two conflicting tasks at once

The new policy scanner kicks ass. Note: don't be alarmed – it will tell you a policy is present even if its value means it isn't enabled. There's no point in having a policy there with an erroneous value, or one that has its value set to disabled (which is the same thing as not having the value). Might as well remove them.

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Dial-a-fix public beta update 2

DjLizard — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 20:59:26 +0000

Dial-a-fix is now being referred to as v0.60, due to the insane amount of changes taking place. :)
Download: Dial-a-fix 2006-06-17 (md5sum: 97fc12c4278d771eed64639bf7dbf831)
(and secedit.exe, if you need the repair permissions tool)

edit: Yeah, I didn't change the titlebar or the "0.58" in any place else but the version area, no big deal. I'll fix it next time :P

Changelog:

* Merged "Repair Windows Firewall" and "Repair networking interfaces" tools
* Erroneously referred to Windows Installer 2.0 as "InstMsiW" in the notes (the file that comes with DAF Full was the correct one, but named incorrectly) – the correct name is "InstMsiA" (W being Unicode (2k/XP) and A being ANSI (Win9x)), but that does not matter now:
x Removed *all* installers
* Added list of installers to the Notes pane of the Help dialog
* Added webvw.dll to the list of IE7 ignores
* Fixed misspelled policy – ForceActiveDesktop to ForceActiveDesktopOn
* Added new Add/Remove programs policies: NoAddRemovePrograms, NoRemovePage, NoAddPage, NoWindowsSetupPage, NoAddFromCDorFloppy, NoAddFromInternet, NoAddFromNetwork, NoServices, NoSupportInfo
* Added new Explorer policies: NoWebView, NoHardwareTab, DisallowRun, RestrictCpl, DisallowCpl, DisableLocalMachineRun, DisableCurrentUserRun, NoFileAssociate
* Added new IE policies: NoBrowserBars, NoBrowserClose, NoBrowserContextMenu, NoBrowserOptions, NoBrowserSaveAs, NoFavorites, NoFileNew, NoFileOpen, NoFindFiles, NoSelectDownloadDir, NoTheaterMode, NoOpeninNewWnd, NoViewSource, NoNavButtons, NoPrinting, AlwaysPromptWhenDownload
* Added new IE CPL policies: Advanced, Autoconfig, Cache, CalendarContact, Check_If_Default, Connection Settings, Certificates, Colors, Fonts, History, Languages, Links, Messaging, Profiles, Proxy, Ratings, Wallet
* Now checks for net.exe, net1.exe, sc.exe, and regsvr32.exe on startup, and lets the user know of missing files (when applicable). Also speeds up usage of these files (except regsvr32.exe, which is not used by DAF)
* Main dialog now highlights the current item being processed
* Added error handler for -2147312566 (TYPE_E_CANTLOADLIBRARY)
* Added check for MSHTML.TLB
* Policy scanner was rewritten (again) and is about twice as fast, but the painting of the new progress bar slows it down a bit

The installers have been removed for several reasons:
* Language problems (most of the packages I had in DAF full were for English only)
* Scripted install problems (a lot of them don't properly silently install)
* Size (most people were downloading DAF full when all they needed was DAF light to begin with – but this was my fault for not making it clear)
* New packages keep coming out (VC2005 redist, for instance)

I've setup a page of links to these installers in case you need them. It's on the Notes pane of the Help dialog. No more DAF full. Just DAF medium (secedit) and light.

edit: oops, beta update 2, not 3. It's beta 3, but update 2. hah.

edit 2: The policy scanner now finds entries that are present, but turned off. I think I'm going to add a checkmark to toggle this functionality on or off in the next update.

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Vista Beta 2 has gone PUBLIC!

DjLizard — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:32:48 +0000

Start here.

You can receive up to 2 product keys, each of which is good for 10 computers. They will also be emailed to your live.com profile.

If you are a member of Something Awful and Alluvion.org, then you can latch on to my x86 torrent.
(x64 torrent)

© DjLizard for DjLizard.net, 2006. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beta, Operating systems, Something Awful, Torrents

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Dial-a-fix public beta update #1

DjLizard — Fri, 26 May 2006 01:59:16 +0000

* Download Dial-a-fix v0.58.0.69 (no, I didn't do that on purpose)

Changes since the first public beta:

* Added a list of files the "Reinstall/Repair IE" tool might request, and their common paths
* Added IE version to the log pane, to help me out
* Added a handler for registration error -2147467259 (0×80004005) ("Unspecified error") – currently suggests doing an SFC purge + SFC scan as there is not a known/common solution for this in most cases
* Fixed up the status bar's animation some more
* Added a "Reinstall Windows Firewall" tool which I've already had to use on a customer's PC (and it worked)

Almost there!

Any other suggestions, guys and gals?

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