So today I had a laptop come in with 5 antivirus programs installed on it (yes really five… wtf) so I decided to remove them all but I ran into a problem with uninstalling bigpond security. When I tried to uninstall bigpond security it asks for bigpond username and password. I did not know this information so I had to find out how to do it without the credentials.
Well here’s how it is done.
You need to open the registry editor by typing “regedit” in the start menu search bar and clicking on it.
Once in regedit you need to navigate to: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Authentium\Curtains\v1.5]
Once you are there will be two keys starting with LLC, rename these keys
Eg. [email protected] to [email protected]
LLCID -> oldLLCID
Now close the registry editor and restart your computer.
Now uninstall the program as normal.
Bigpond security seems to be a resource hog. After uninstalling this antivirus software I could see a noticeable improvement.
Cloud computing is basically using resources either software or hardware that are in a different location(the cloud). The term cloud comes from when the internet is drawn in a technical diagram it is usually represented by a picture of a cloud. That means that you may login to a remote server to do your computing that means that any computer could essentially become your work computer with a simple login. There is also cloud storage, meaning that your data is stored in another location and then either synced to your device or accessed on demand.
The Windows 8 cloud
Windows 8 has cloud storage built into it using Microsoft’s Skydrive. Skydrive is a cloud storage platform that stores your data on Microsoft’s servers somewhere so you can access it on multiple platforms and wherever you go. Skydrive my be windows 8’s built in cloud storage but there are other options out there such as dropbox and google cloud storage. With skydrive integrated into the windows 8 platform it makes it quite easy to have your essential data on Microsoft’s cloud. Windows 8 will automatically sync any information that you place in the skydrive folder to the Microsoft cloud. So now you can write a word document on your desktop and then save it to your sky drive or other cloud storage service and then on the train you might remember you missed something so you access it on your phone and add what was missing save it back to the cloud and then when you get home that same copy has been changed to how you needed it to be.
Windows 8 also can sync your personal user preferences to the cloud so any Windows 8 device will pull information down from the Microsoft cloud and have the same theme and look as all of your other windows 8 devices. This makes it very easy to go from a Windows 8 desktop to a Windows RT tablet and also to the Windows 8 phone.
Many of the Windows 8 apps also use the cloud in one way or another whether it be by using processing power of a server instead of using your device or they may use the cloud to store the information relevant to you,
People often ask me to remove their viruses from there computer and i charge them for my time, which is fair enough, but why would you want to pay someone to do something you can do for free yourself. When I remove my friends viruses I show them how to do it themselves and they are usually surprised at how simple it is. I have decided to make this little tutorial to show you all how to kill your own viruses.
So your computer is doing weird stuff and you think you might have been infected. What do o you do now? Well there are two options. First you can pay anywhere from $50 to $200 to get someone to fix it, or you can do it yourself at home for nothing using the exact same virus removal tools they use.
You will need:
A backup drive(optional): to back up your data.
RKill: This stops any suspicious processes that your computer has running
CCleaner: To clean your registry after the virus removal process
Malwarebytes: This is the actual virus removal tool to run a virus scan and remove the detected files
Combofix: This is a last resort, it is a dangerous program to use because it can make low level changes to your operating system and render it unusable.
All of these programs are free!! The only thing that will cost you money is the backup drive. The backup drive is optional but i recommend it because sometimes the virus may have adverse effects on your data during the removal stage or even while it is infected. Always make sure you update your virus removal programs before use.
Removal
Step 1
Boot to safe mode. You do this by powering on your computer and repeatedly pressing the “F8” key until the boot menu is opened. You want to select “Safe mode with networking” as we will need to update the virus removal software once it is started.
Step 2(Optional but recommended)
Back up all of your important data. This is usually located in the “My Documents”, “My Pictures”, “My Video’s” and “My Music” folders.
You may also want to back up your outlook data if you have e-mails coming through outlook. Outlook Data is located at “drive:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook” in windows Vista , 7 and 8. In XP it is stored at “rive:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook”.
Step 3
Download and run RKill, when you download it make sure you download the one marked iexplorer.exe and run that. The name of the program has been changed so malware does not know what it is and stop it from running.
Step 4
Download and install Malwarebytes. At the end of the installation it will ask you if you want to enable a trial of Malwarebytes Pro, uncheck this box as we do not need it leave the other boxes checked that say to run on completion and to update the program.
Step 5
Run Malwarebytes and do a full scan on all drives that are showing. This may take anywhere from an hour to all day so you might as well take a break. Have a coffee or a beer maybe…
Step 6
At the end of the scan Malwarebytes will give you the results of the malware scan. I recommend removing all of them. But you may not want to because it can show some useful utilities as hack-tools or suspicious files. If your not sure then just select clean all. Once all of the viruses are removed it will prompt you to restart your computer, you definitely want to do this as some viruses may hide in your RAM and re-install themselves without you knowing.
Step 7
Once your PC you will need to run Kaspersky TDS Killer. This will do another scan but inside of your system files. TDS Killer looks for root-kits which hide themselves as part of your operating system. If the scan from TDS Killer finds anything remove it. Hopefully it wont.
Step 8
Now we use CCleaner to clean out the registry. This will remove any keys that point to not existent files, keys that have duplicates and also keys that your virus may have left behind.
Now it is time to test your computer, just do some normal things on it like browse the internet and what ever else you feel like doing on it. If you go to 3 minutes and 10 seconds on the video below it will show you how to clean out the registry. Always make sure you save a backup copy of the registry in case the program accidentally deletes something it wasn’t meant to then you can go through and restore the registry to a previous state.
If you still have problems…
So you still have problems??
That is not good. This means you will need to bring in the big guns.
WARNING: Combofix makes low level changes to your operating system. This is a utility that can leave your computer inoperable
Now we run Combofix. This anti root-kit utility may reboot your computer a few times while it runs. Once it has finished it will show a report outlining the changes that have been made. After running Combofix to remove your virus or root-kit you will want to run CCleaner to clean the registry again.
If you still have problems you most likely need to re-install your operating system or take it to a professional.
Now there are a lot of different versions of windows 8 and you may be wondering what they all mean. There are all the different builds and there is also ones called Windows 8, Windows 8 pro and Windows 8 enterprise. Well here is a list of them.
Windows Versions
Windows 8
Windows 8 is the basic edition of Windows for the x86(32 bit) and x86-64(64 bit) architectures. This edition is also referred to as Windows 8 core edition. This edition contains features aimed at the home user and provides all of the basic new Windows 8 features including the Start screen with semantic zoom, live tiles, Windows Store, Internet Explorer 10, connected standby, Microsoft account integration, the Windows desktop and more.
Windows 8 Pro
Windows 8 Pro is comparable to Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate. This edition is more targeted towards enthusiasts and business users, it includes all the features of Windows 8 but add more features such as the ability to receive Remote Desktop connections, you can join a Windows Server domain, Encrypting File System, Hyper-V, and Virtual Hard Disk Booting, Group Policy as well as BitLocker and BitLocker To Go. Windows Media Center functionality is also available but is an additional software feature that needs to be purchased.
Windows 8 Enterprise
Windows 8 Enterprise provides all the features in Windows 8 Pro (except the ability to install the Windows Media Center add-on), with additional features to assist with IT organization such as AppLocker. This edition is available to Software Assurance customers, as well as MSDN and Technet Professional subscribers. For the regular user there is no point getting this version as it is aimed at enterprise level organizations.
Windows RT
Windows RT will only be available per-installed on ARM-based devices such as tablet PCs. It includes touch-optimized desktop versions of the basic set of Office 2013 applications to users—Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, and support device encryption capabilities. Several business-focused features such as Group Policy and domain support are not included.Normal programs able to run on windows will not run on Windows RT because of the different processor that it runs on.
Windows Release Preview
This is the same as the release candidate. This is a free demo copy.
Windows Consumer Preview
This was release before the release preview. This version is a free demo copy. Has more bugs that have not been worked out and does not have full functionality of the release preview.
These are the new shortcut keys of windows 8. If I have missed any please comment on this post and I will add them.
Windows key – brings up the Metro start screen. You can start typing to search for an app, the same as you could in windows 7.
Win + D – Takes you to the desktop.
Win + Q – brings up the Metro App Search screen.
Win + W – brings up the Metro Settings search screen.
Win + F – brings up the Metro File search screen.
Win + K – opens the Devices panel (for connecting to a projector or some other device)
Win + C – brings up the Charms menu, you can search, share, and change settings from here.
Win + I – opens the Settings panel, where you can change settings for your wireless networks, current app, volume, shut down, or adjust the brightness.
Win + Z – opens the App Bar for the open Metro app. Only works while you are in a metro app.
Win + H – opens the Metro Share panel.
Win + , (comma) – Aero Peek at the desktop.
Win + . (full stop) – Snaps the current Metro application to one side of the screen. (Right side)
Win + Shift + . (period) – Snaps the current Metro application to the other side of the screen. (Left side)
Win + J – switches focus between snapped Metro applications.
Win + Page Up / Down – moves the current app to the other monitor.
Win + Tab – opens the Metro application switcher menu, switches between applications.
Win + X – launch admin menu
Win+space – change language much like in OSX
Windows + E – brings up Windows Explorer
Windows Key + Print Screen – saves a screenshot into your Pictures folder
Now you know these test them out and be sure to use them in your everyday use of windows 8 as they are quite handy to memorize.
A quick intro and walk through of how to use windows 8 on your new desktop computer or tablet.
This covers how to navigate through the new windows metro feel, how to log in and a few other things you will need to know to maximize your performance in windows 8
This is a video demonstrating how to install Windows 8 Pro. When installing any of the other versions of windows 8 you go through the same process.
I honestly found it more enjoying then previous windows installations, they have more pretty colours and stuff and give you a tiny bit of information on how to use it. Still no where near as entertaining as an Ubuntu installation but, oh well…
Sorry about the camera quality but here is how to install windows 7, I did this while installing my new ssd. It is quite an easy process to install windows.
Is there a device that is connected to your computer that is not working properly, maybe you don’t have wireless networks or your Bluetooth isn’t working. You may have missing drivers. You should be able to find the drivers from the manufacturers website
To check to see what devices are connected to your computer you need to go to device manager. You can get there by typing “device” into the “search programs and files” search bar in the start menu, or you can right click on my computer and select the “manage” option.
Two options of how to get into device manager
Once you are in the device manager you will see(or hopefully not see if all is good) some yellow items on the pictures
The missing drivers will look like this
Next we need to identify the what the device actually is. How do we do this if it just says unknown device?
First we need to right click on the device with no driver and select properties. Now this is where one of the best tools available comes into play.. google.
You should get some links explaining more and then you need to sort through them and find out what the hardware is. Once you find what the hardware is that the driver is missing from then you need to download it from the “official” support page
