Win32 Protector.c

Nasty piece of work!

win 32 protector.c virus. How to remove?

ntfs.sys – infected by Virus.Win32.Protector.c and braviax [Solved]

Windows XP Cleaning Procedure – MajorGeeks Support Forums

Dr.Web LiveCD FREE Download

Fake Mail Server SSL Update Email Message

http://blogs.appliedconsultancy.com/reload/?m=20091012

http://www.cybersec.eu/?p=244

http://www.threatexpert.com/report.aspx?md5=174aeb93b8d642c2cddfd9c50b0015c9

Threat characteristics of ZBot – a banking trojan that disables firewall, steals sensitive financial data (credit card numbers, online banking login details), makes screen snapshots, downloads additional components, and provides a hacker with the remote access to the compromised system.

http://tools.cisco.com/security/center/viewAlert.x?alertId=19190

Microsoft Outlook Data Files

Open, change, or close Outlook data files – Outlook – Microsoft Office Online

Windows Terminal Services Printing

Terminal Services and Printing

The Ultimate Guide to Terminal Server Printing – Design and Configuration – Brian Madden – BrianMadden.com

Windows Terminal Services Printing

Bootable USB Drive

Microsoft TechNet Ireland Blog : Bootable USB Drive Recipe

Software for students

and their immediate family!

Microsoft Education Ireland

Micromail Student Software

Software4Students.ie

Backup

Must play with these:

Backup Maker Offers Dead Simple Backup Creation – Backup – Lifehacker

AceBackup Offers Local, Remote, and Secure File Backup – Backup utilities – Lifehacker

Insure Your Data with Personal Backup – Windows – Lifehacker

NasBackup Makes Incremental Backups Easy – Backup utilities – Lifehacker

Five Best Windows Backup Tools – Hive Five – Lifehacker

Geek to Live: Automatically back up your hard drive – Automation – Lifehacker

Optimising Virtual Machines

* NOTE: Oh what a difference, a differencing disk makes…or does it? « Krichie – That SharePoint Guy

Coding Horror: Creating Smaller Virtual Machines

Scott Hanselman’s Computer Zen – Invirtus Virtual Machine Optimizer

When *not* to use Invirtus VM Optimizer (Hint: with differencing disks!) + different space-saver way – ISerializable – Roy Osherove’s Blog

Diskpart

DiskPart

A Description of the Diskpart Command-Line Utility

DiskPart Command-Line Options

How to automatically assign a drive letter by using the Diskpart.exe command on a Windows Server 2003-based computer or on a Windows XP-based computer

How to extend a data volume in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, in Windows 2000, and in Windows Server 2008

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console for advanced users

Antivirus Exclusions on Servers

Virus scanning recommendations for computers that are running Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Vista

Overview of Exchange Server 2003 and antivirus software

FAQs – What exclusions should I use for Antivirus…

NOD32 Best Practice installation – [H]ard|Forum

What Anti-Virus scanning exclusions should be considered for system and servers? – Shaun Cassells at MyITForum.com

Improving Performance – AntiVirus Exclusions on Virtual Server

Virtual PC Guy’s WebLog : Antivirus and Hyper-V (or: Why can’t I start my virtual machine?)

Computer Deployment with ImageX

ImageX Technical Reference

Windows Imaging Format – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WindowsDevCenter.com: PC Deployment with ImageX

Svrops.com – Deploying Vista with Sysprep and Imagex

Imagex As Backup Tool – The CD Forum

You cannot use the ImageX.exe tool as a backup tool on a Windows Vista-based computer

Network Diagrams

The Art of Network Diagrams – Visio 2007 « Virtualization, Windows, Infrastructure and all that “stuff” in-between

VisioCafe

Virtualization, Virtualisation, Whatever!

Using Virtual PC as a Test and Learning Platform

Recipes for working with Microsoft Virtual PC – Be Logical – writings by Johan Hedberg

Best practices for Virtual Server

Code, Code, Code Everywhere: Move VirtualPC Base & Differencing Disks

HOWTO: Use Virtual PC’s Differencing Disks to your Advantage

HOWTO: Squeeze Every Last Drop of Performance Out of Your Virtual PCs

Creating a Custom and Quiet Virtualization Rig with Microsoft’s Hyper-V

20 things you should know about virtualization, from TechRepublic – Downloads – TechRepublic

Virtual PC Guy’s WebLog

The Soul of a Virtual Machine

Basic things to do when creating a Microsoft Server Gold Build for use on a VMware ESX Template. | TechHead.co.uk

TechHead – VMware, Virtualization, HP & Microsoft Related IT Blog

Virtualization, Windows, Infrastructure and all that “stuff” in-between

Virtual PC Guy’s WebLog : Securely configuring virtual machines

Use Microsoft’s Virtual PC to Test Software Before Deploying It

Review of Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1 | Install create guest operating system

Tip: Convering your Virtual PC 2007 disks to Windows Virtual PC (on Windows 7) – Tobias Zimmergren’s thoughts on development

Sysprep, XP and Vista Rollout Links

Ask The Admin » Blog Archive » How to Roll Out Desktops Using Disk Imaging

How-To: Image Windows XP with Ghost and Sysprep | Hisham’s Blog

Vernalex.com Guides: SysPrep Guide

Vernalex.com Tools: SysPrep Driver Scanner

Build a Windows Vista Master PC Image « Virtualization, Windows, Infrastructure and all that “stuff” in-between

Security Sites

VirusInfo

Alliance of Security Analysis Professionals

Vista Network Issues

Windows Vista cannot obtain an IP address from certain routers or from certain non-Microsoft DHCP servers

You may experience connectivity issues or performance issues when you connect a mobile PC that is running Windows Vista to a wireless access point

XP SP3 Sysprep Changes

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Deployment Tools

http://thebackroomtech.com/2008/05/21/updated-sysprepexe-now-available-for-windows-xp-sp3/

http://remyservices.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/sysprep-updates-to-sp3/

http://remyservices.wordpress.com/2007/09/28/sysprep-in-depth-part-5-customizing-sysprepinf/

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302577

Online free file storage sites to test for business use

Box.net

IDrive

Mozy

Xdrive Just realised that this is part of AOL!

Information on other options options can be found at:

The Smorgasbord | Free Online Storage Review

28 Free File Storage Hosting Websites – Something you need to Bookmark!

Public NTP Time Server

0.ie.pool.ntp.org

See http://www.pool.ntp.org/

Glad I’m not the only one who won’t touch Vista

I’ve been using Vista Ultimate Edition on my work laptop for the past few months even though I disliked it even back then. The only reason it is still on the laptop is that I don’t have the time to wipe and reinstall the laptop with XP Pro.  Hopefully that day will come soon.

I really tried to get to like Vista.  I thought that if I became more familiar with it I might get a change of heart and grow to accept it.  I now know that will never happen.  In fact I’ve come to the completely hate Vista with a passion.  I can’t pick certain features that I individually hate about Vista, it’s the OS as a whole that I detest.  Windows ME 2?

According to a leaked internal memo, Intel are never going to use Vista.  See the article on the Inquirer here (Via).

Nice to know I’m in good company!

Microsoft Office 2007 Viewers

Access 2007 Download: Access Runtime

PowerPoint Viewer 2007

Visio 2007 Viewer

How to view Word 2007 and Excel 2007 files by using Word Viewer 2003 and Excel Viewer 2003

Excel Viewer 2003

Word Viewer 2003

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

Free Online Virus & Malware Scanners

VIRUSTOTAL – Free Online Virus and Malware Scan (Via)

Jotti’s Malware Scan (Via)

Free Acronis True Image OEM for Seagate/Maxtor HDDs

One of the best HDD utilities is free – the Inquirer (Via)

Seagate has released a version of Disc Wizard and Maxtor’s Max Blast 5, but what makes these utilities highly on the “me want” list is the fact that both are based on the OEM version of the excellent True Image app. Disc Wizard and Max Blast utilities now offer a plethora of options that give people options previously offered only by commercial applications. Disc Wizard/Max Blast feature disk drive cloning, full disk imaging, formatting drives, creating partitions, erasing all the data on the drive – for the best price of them all.

If you have a Seagate or Maxtor HDD, then check this out now!

Best Free Computer Recovery Tools

What free system recovery tools do you find most useful or use on a regular basis.  See if any of the following are on your list:

Lifehacker’s Top 10 Free System Recovery Tools

10. SuperDuper! (Mac boot drive maker)

9. Magical Jelly Bean Key Finder (Windows)

8. USB PC Repair Kit (Windows)

7. Undelete Plus (Windows file recovery)

6. System Information for Windows (diagnostics)

5. DasBoot (Mac boot CD maker)

4. Ophcrack Live CD (Windows password cracker)

3. Ultimate Boot CD (bootable diagnostic CD, x386)

2. Knoppix (bootable CD, x386)

1. GParted LiveCD (partition manager, x386)

I regularly use System Information for Windows (SIW), Ultimate Boot CD and Knoppix.  These cover almost everything I need on a daily tech support basis.  Must try out some of the others, especially GParted LiveCD.

Create Windows Install CD from Recovery CD

If your PC came with a recovery CD and you want to perform a custom install of the OS, without all the junk that the OEM thought would be useful but is just a complete waste of resources and hard drive space, the following might be of some help:

Creating a Windows Installation CD from your Recovery Disk

Recovery CD to working Windows install CD

Install Windows Updates Without An Internet Connection

After installing a fresh copy of Windows 2000, XP or Server 2003 one of the most important things to do is to install all available security updates from Microsoft before connecting to the internet.  But in order to do this you need to connect to the internet, right?  Catch 22!  Well, there are solutions to this sticky situation:

heise Security Offline Update 3.0 Script Collection (Via)

According to heise Security – Hands-on – Do-it-yourself Service Pack

We here offer an alternative to this update dilemma, starting immediately: version 3 of our script collection Offline Update requires only a few steps to reel in a current service pack at any time, combining all released Windows updates at the time of download. The download script acquires the complete update library for selected operating systems from Microsoft’s servers and uses them to created ISO images for CDs or DVDs as desired. These in turn can be used to update as many PCs as you wish.

AutoPatcher

AutoPatcher could be described as an offline Windows Update. AutoPatcher provides an interface to a large collection of updates, common applications and registry tweaks, that can be easily and quickly applied to your computer system.

I’ve used AutoPatcher in the past to test it out and due to the extra applications, registry tweaks, etc., I would not recommend it unless you are comfortable playing around with the guts of the OS.  Af you do use it, be careful what you select to be installed.

I only discovered heise Security Offline Update today and am currently in the process of downloading the updates and creating ISO images.  So far, I’m very impressed with how it’s running downloading the updates.  It only downloads updates directly from Microsof, and does not include any extra applications, registry tweaks, etc.

Even without properly testing it yet, my money’s on heise Security Offline Update 3.0 Script Collection.

How to Create a Bootable Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition

This Microsoft Knowledge Base Article (119467) might come in handy at some point.

How Vulnerable is an Unprotected PC on the Internet?

How long do you reckon an unprotected PC, i.e., with no firewall or antivirus, will remain uninfected after it is connected to the internet? Months, weeks, days, hours, minutes? Would you believe just 8 seconds!

According to the BBC World article Jacques’ Hack Attack in which Spencer Kelly met up with Jacques Erasmus, an ex-hacker turned computer security expert, it was just 8 seconds before an unprotected PC connected to the internet was hit by Sasser.

Jacques wanted to show me just how risky it is to connect an unprotected PC to the ‘net. We set up a poor Windows XP machine with no firewall or anti-virus software – connecting it to the Internet would be like throwing it into a lion pen with raw meat strapped to its hard drive. How long would it be before we were hit by something nasty on the net? Hours, minutes? As it turned out – eight seconds!

We were hit by Sasser, one of the fastest spreading worms on the ‘net, and it wastes no time at all in taking over your PC. Within seconds of infection, our PC started downloading some strange programs, or payloads, from mysterious Internet addresses. These payloads are the programs that can take control of your machine and turn it into a remote controlled bot.

Our machine then started scanning random Internet addresses, looking for other vulnerable PCs to infect. Then Internet Explorer started downloading spyware. Within 5 minutes our PC was running so many malicious programs, that the CPU was running flat-out at 100% – and we weren’t even touching it.

Of course, if you’ve been a victim of hacking, it’s no laughing matter – it certainly wasn’t for our PC, which crashed completely in under 30 minutes.

Under no circumstances should you connect to the internet without a good antivirus, firewall, and anti-spyware software. For good, free, software to protect your PC see my page on Recommended Software.

Half-Life CD-Key Already In Use

I bought Half-Life 2 a while back, and much to my annoyance I discovered Steam. I know it’s great in theory, but in practice it’s a pain in the ass. Especially when you need an update and you only have 56k dial-up. After completing the game, which was amazing apart from the end which I found too easy, I decided to install my original copy of Half-Life and the Opposing Force expansion pack. When I tried to register this on Steam I got a message saying that it was already registered. I know I never registered it! What do I do? Here’s the answer.
Thanks to someone using a key generator my CD-Key is now registered to someone else and I have to pay Valve a $10.00 handling fee to have it reset and assigned to my account. Alternatively, I could just go and buy a new copy. Lovely!

Irish Free Dial-Up ISP Settings

Eircom Net Free

Access number – 1892 150 150
Username – eircomnet
Password – eircomnet
Primary DNS – 159.134.237.6
Secondary DNS – 159.134.248.17
Incoming mail server (POP) – mail2.eircom.net
Outgoing mail server (SMTP) – mail2.eircom.net
nntp (news) server – news1.eircom.net
webspace ftp server – homepage.eircom.net
ftp server port number – 21
default web folder – public_html
default web page – index.htm

IOLFree

Access Number – 1890 924 042
Username – free
Password – free
Primary DNS – 194.145.128.1
Secondary DNS – 194.145.128.2
Incoming mail server (POP) – pop.iolfree.ie
Outgoing mail server (SMTP) – mail.iolfree.ie
Proxy – proxy.iolfree.ie
Port – 8080

Oceanfree

Access Number – 1890 923 204
Username – Oceanfree
Password – Oceanfree
Primary DNS – 194.72.6.51
Secondary DNS – 194.72.6.52
Incoming mail server (POP) – mail.oceanfree.net
Outgoing mail server (SMTP) – smtp.oceanfree.net

More settings can be found at FreeDialupIsps on IIU Wiki