Aw dawg, this is just my whateva-whateva site.

Worldwide there is a tendency in anti-virus forums and anti-spyware forums to complain about the anti-virus products from McAfee, Symantec and Norton.

Why is that, you may ask? Yes, they are bloated, they take almost half a millennium to scan your system and they were about the last products that could flawlessly work with Vista. But then, there are hundreds of crappy or sub-standard products available on the internet and a program like RogueRemover will take on but a few of the worst offenders. So, why do we care?

The root of this problem lies with the fact that these companies have brilliant sales departments. We all know that a good salesman can sell anything to an unwary customer. And there are hardly any more customers unaware than those who reside in the computer procurement departments of large companies and schools. McAfee, Symantec and Norton are pre-installed in virtually every computer that finds its way into your company or school. No problem, no hassle to search and find the best possible anti-virus scanner. No, that problem has already been conveniently solved for them by the seller.

We, the real experts, know better. We like lightning quick scans, as less false positives as possible, an appealing GUI and a responsive staff that will take all our problems seriously.

So, why do we care? We care because we have the best possible anti-virus programs running on our own computers but we have to live daily with these programs that can't meet our own high standards.

It can be regarded as a form of mental torture that, in the end, makes us more mature and resilient. Regard it as a test and also as an ongoing incentive for other companies to keep developing even better anti-virus programs and anti-spyware programs.

And in the end who really cares? It's not our own money that is wasted on these programs.

edit by DjLizard: I'm filing this under Incompetence also :D

I posted before about BenQ's use of the WTC wreckage as a background image, and they have since apologized and "put a process in place to prevent this type of incident from happening again". I never went back to the site so I didn't know they had already changed it.

At the time of writing, they have an apology graphic up at http://www.benq.com.cn/musiq/

http://www.benq.com.cn/musiq/

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I'm going to go with "not good" on this one.

Every second Tuesday of each month an update of the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (aka MSRT) is released.

It is a very useful little tool that can detect and remove a growing number of viruses, worms, trojans and rootkits. And the best part of it is that is free. ‘Free?’ I hear you say, ‘from Microsoft?’ And the answer is, perhaps surprisingly, ‘Yes, it is!’

According to Microsoft the tool has been used a staggering 2.7 billion times and in doing so it detected and removed 16 million instances of malware from 5.7 million infected computers. In most cases the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool removed just one single malware variant from a computer but in some cases it has removed dozens and even hundreds of malware variants from computers. This last number can be easily explained by the fact that a backdoor can download lots of other malicious programs.

How do they know, you wonder? Well, just like the error reports you voluntarily should send to Microsoft when your computer experiences a serious problem and has to shut down, the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool will send a report to Microsoft with just the basic information about the malware it detected and removed. And just like you should never disable the error reporting service, you should never stop this tool from reporting its findings to Microsoft. Both send no identifiable personal info about you or your computer to Microsoft.

Using this information Microsoft recently published a report in which some interesting points are made.

It transpired that instances of an infection dramatically fell after a particular infection was added to the Microsoft Malicious Removal Tool. Some families of malware experienced decreases greater than 75%. Well, they would, wouldn’t they? Because people only use this program if and when their computers were infected.

Microsoft doesn’t make any comments about how it is possible that all that malware wasn’t blocked, detected or removed in the first place by an up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware product. Even now, after so much publicity and crashed computers, people are still strangely complacent about their security and privacy.

NOTE: Do not redistribute TheNotifier. It is for personal testing only.

Download: TheNotifier v0.0.0.26 (~198KB, *.exe)

As explained previously, this is a prototype app I'm working on which will help me (and eventually you) fight certain malware attacks. At the moment, it just allows you look at what's going on.

As always, comment here, or post at the "Lunarsoft.net DjLizard.net software support forum" (preferred).

Changelog:

* Moved to tabbed interface
* Added more specific filtering functions (None, known, or Microsoft)
* Added AppInit_DLLs tab with basic support (very alpha) – more to come
* 'Jump to key' when on the AppInit_DLLs tab will take you to the 'Windows' key (where AppInit_DLLs is)
* Added the following known-good Notify entries: avldr, Caveo, ckpNotify, Command AntiVirus Download, ComPlusSetup, CwWLEvent, dimsntfy, DPWLN, FolderGuard, GoToMyPC, loginkey, MetaFrame, nwprovau, OPXGina, PCANotify, PFW, ppeclt, PRISMAPI.DLL, PRISMGNA.DLL, psfus, QConGina, RAinit, RegCompact, SABWinLogon, SDNotify, Sebring, T3Notify, TabBtnWL, Timbuktu Pro, tpfnf2, tpgwlnotify, tphotkey, VESWinlogon, WB, WBSrv, Zboard, zsnotify

I have a list of many known-good AppInit_DLLs so you don't have to let me know about those yet.

Also, I have a lot of work left on DAF before I can release another update, so don't worry.

It's patch tuesday – a bunch of fixes came out. Visit Windows Update to get them, or wait for them to be downloaded with idle network bandwidth, by BITS.

I haven't been paying attention lately (I've been quite busy) but a new version of MSHTML.DLL is out – 6.00.2900.2912. It can't be registered (at all), thankfully. The previous version, .2838, was not supposed to be registerable either, but Microsoft broke it. This time, it spits out an error code (specifically, hex 0x80029c4a / decimal -2147312566: TYPE_E_CANTLOADLIBRARY). Dial-a-fix v0.58 (which is pretty close to being v0.60) recognizes certain versions of files now, and ignores the ones it knows it can't register. I'll have a new public beta soon, I think. I've got to do some more private testing first (I've made a truckload of changes since the last public beta).

edit: Wait, the one on my dev machine is 6.0.2900.2912, and it DOES register. Something's not right here!

edit 2: Ok, I found out what the problem is. A rogue program removed mshtml.tlb because it thought it was no longer being used. WTF! Ugh, 3rd party software. This post has been rendered invalid. At least I have something to check for with Dial-a-fix now…

I work for Digital Doctors. The tech manager and I just converted our website from a static Dreamweaver HTML-uncompliant mess to a brand spankin' new WordPress site, and the result is outstanding. The look is finally consistent, it's easy to edit, it's 100 times faster than the old site, standards compliant, dynamic, and easy for search engines to spider. I will also be writing articles for it for our current and future customers — so they will not be as technical as the articles I post here.

Anyway, if you live in Bradenton, Sarasota (or anywhere else in Manatee/Sarasota county) Florida, you can bring your computer to our shop and I will work on it! If you live in Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater, you can call and one of our skilled technicians can come to you.

Our labor rates are not the highest, and not the lowest, but there's no other computer repair facility in a 50 mile radius that can do what we do – we are the best, most fair shop at which I've ever had the pleasure of working. Most repairs are 1 to 1½ hours, but we have a max labor rate of 2 hours — no matter how many things we do, the most you will ever be charged for is 2 hours of labor (plus parts, if applicable). We're also able to work on smaller things in quarter-hour increments. Give us a call for current labor rates.

Digital Doctors
7333 52nd Place East,
Bradenton, FL 34203
1-941-747-9477 Sarasota/Manatee (ask for Mike if you want to talk to me!)
1-727-541-4410 Pinellas
1-813-932-4500 Tampa

Here's a Yahoo! map of our location.

Fred pointed out this nice guide to Google's advanced operators. I knew less than half of the operators. (I only knew about several of the [all/]in* ones).

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

I have set up a Paypal donation system. Use it if you enjoyed my crappy site or Dial-a-fix or something. I have pretty big credit card debt, so start emptying your wallets.

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