I am getting sick and tired of the M$ BS! The updates, if they don't work, keep coming back over and over! The idiots that LOAF there and swear that Billy G is god, are a bunch of losers.
I have had to work on many of their messed up machines and the M$ OS is still the most prominent garbage I have ever seen! It is just becoming so clear to me that M$ is just a joke anymore! They think that they can update behind your back and tell you when to shut your computer down too! Did you ever get the constant reminder that your computer MUST be shut down?
Use the latest edition of the IE 7 web browser and find out what it ALWAYS says if it times out........check your internet settings and you lost everything you typed in too!
WHOTF do they think they are? If M$ ran this country, it would be a dictatorship! I hope somebody comes up with a better option, but I cannot say that MAC is the answer either. After all, they played in the same garage!
There is no such a thing as perfect OS. Nearest one for me is Ubuntu. Hopefully you find some OS with what you like to use computer.
But yes, i got tired too about constant problems MS OS had so i just switched and learned a new one. Took few months but now i am a happy man
I use Firefox when posting stuff, but the editing options are not available with it in the QB forum for some reason.
XP is not a big problem really, but I went and shut off all updates and now I have a red shield in the taskbar. They think that they can scare me into updates! LOL, no way. I will update at my pleasure, not theirs!
I have been getting the SAME update for the stupid database that I got with the free .NET express edition. I don't even use it and I just decided enough was enough.
I am still waiting to see if my XP gets invisible updates that sometimes appear on reboot. Will let you know.
to get rid of the red shield, I think you can disable the securtiy center.
December 6 2007, 5:33 PM
It's been a while since I've worked on XP, so I don't remember. Most of the security center warnings can be overridden. Spybot Search & Destroy checks for security center overrides.
By the way, specific updates can be blocked indefinitely, and it won't bother you about them again. A better option would be to investigate it. If it is failing each time, get the error code and find out why. If it is being reported as succeeding, there will still be a reason why it is being repeatedly installed. (registry permissions? unregistered dlls? disabled service? corrupt update files? (the update files are in the softwaredistribution folder, I think) I don't remember, but there can be reasons.)
I read about this tool in a book. I haven't used it yet:
I'm on someone else's XP right now because the internet is temporarily down at my place, and I am hating every minute of this. It is slow, ugly, and crashes every few minutes -- completely different than mine.
Here are the things I do to set up my XP the way I want it:
*) Install XP and update completely (not sure about latest update, though)
*) Replace uxtheme.dll with a hacked version that doesn't have the restrictions
*) Download more visual styles, screen savers, and other eye candy.
*) Get tweak UI, Visual Studio (.NET is good IMO), and IE7
*) Run services.msc and set up "Automatic Updates" to never run unless you tell it to (Automatic Update slows down the computer a lot and hogs memory)
*) Use tweak UI, msconfig, and other tools to tweak the settings to perfection
*) Also mess with settings in IE 7 (and make sure script debugger is off because it causes problems), Windows Media Player (problems: Making it impossible to remove a disc, and slowing computer down while it searches for updates, new files, etc.), Explorer, and My Computer.
If you want, I'll go through a lot of the specific settings I've changed whenever I get my internet back up on my computer. It took me about two weeks of constant work and tweaking to get it perfected, but I did a little extra that isn't really needed to make XP okay.
Do NOT:
*) Install virus protection (it slows down the computer)
*) Install extra firewalls (windows firewall works fine)
*) Install toolbars for internet explorer
*) Install file sharing software
*) Install internet speeder-uppers
*) Install anything else that claims to help but hurts more than it helps
My XP crashed a few days ago due to some problems with the latest XP update from Microsoft, but before then, my computer hadn't crashed since a few years ago before I had it tweaked. It uses up 100 KB of memory, and it runs very quickly and smoothly. I leave it on for about a month at a time with no problems.
Everything in XP can be changed -- it's just a question of how much work do you want to do to make it better? If you want a good OS right out of the box, then XP is not for you. XP can be made stable by tweaking the settings and can be made unique by redoing some system files, but how stable it will be and how awesome it will look and feel depends on how much work you want to do.
About the red shield question: I prefer to leave it down there as a quick-launch for the firewall. There is a way to remove it (or any other program) from the system tray though. I'll look into it when I get back on my other computer, but it may be a while before I am able to get back to you on this one.
Oh, and about the virus protection. I will never use virus protection software because it slows down the computer. I can usually tell when my computer has gotten a virus (the way IExplore acts when an exploit has been found by someone). Then, I restore taskman (I always have it minimized), check it, then check services.msc. If I find a virus, I disable it, then remove it. You can go to My Computer, then arrange icons by "modified" to get a hint of where the virus is stored. Usually, they can be deleted; if not, avenger is a great tool for removing stubborn read-only files.
This message has been edited by ComputerGhost on Dec 7, 2007 8:47 AM
Re: I love XP... after a few modifications and such.
December 7 2007, 7:42 PM
>*) Install virus protection (it slows down the computer)
If you have a dual core chip, it seems like the effect would be less.
There are some comments from Kev, Alun, and me on page 2 of this thread:
http://qbasic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32
Basically, I feel that a careful person doesn't NEED an antivirus, but that it is a protection against user error. Although I have Clamwin installed, I have not used it in months. While I do browse in Firefox to unsafe sites, I am careful not to download executables. I've also seen a few trojan attempts on various websites, but a few seconds of thinking should stop a person from falling for them. I have, however, downloaded executable programs, including unfamiliar DOS games and unfamiliar freeware, and have run them without scanning them first. One of these days, I'll probably get a trojan that way.
For inexpirienced computer users, I feel that they generally do need antivirus. There are plenty of teenage girls and boys out there who seem to know nothing except how to download music, trade files, IM, use myspace, and, in some cases, look for porn. Most of the XP computers that I worked on were infected. It is easy to imagine them falling for what would, to you and me, be obvious trojan attempts. They need to be protected from themselves, for all our sakes. Once their computers get compromised, their computers can then eat up Internet bandwidth and clog people's email inboxes with spam.
A lot of adults and even teenagers know almost nothing of computer security. These people barely know how to turn the computer on. Or they just know how to do what they are accustomed to doing, and don't bother learning how to protect themselves. I usually recommend AVG or avast! to such people, for their sakes and everyone else's.
>*) Install extra firewalls (windows firewall works fine)
Windows firewall is fine until you get malware on your computer.
P.S. The formatted text thing messes up the URLs during message edits.
This message has been edited by MCalkins on Dec 7, 2007 7:53 PM This message has been edited by MCalkins on Dec 7, 2007 7:48 PM This message has been edited by MCalkins on Dec 7, 2007 7:44 PM
Re: Re: I love XP... after a few modifications and such.
December 9 2007, 6:04 PM
I hadn't heard of the systeminternals tools you mentioned. I've been using a few other tools for the same jobs, but systeminternals looks better. I'll look into it more later. Thanks for mentioning it.
I don't like virus protection either, but I also agree that some people need it. It annoys me when they have about five different virus protection softwares; they only need one -- two at most. I'll stick with none, I'll recommend one for my grandmother and other people like that. ;-)
Looking through it can give you an idea of what sort of vulnerabilities are possible.
Of course, if you visit a malicious website before your browser is patched for a known vulnerability, then you can be in trouble. It is good to update your browser relatively soon after the update is released.
If a system could be guaranteed to have no OS vulnerabilities and no vulnerable services enabled, then you wouldn't even need a firewall, would you? But you can't generally guarantee that (without compromising functionality). Firewalls and antivirus programs can be seen as extra lines of defense.
that's like saying "with a johnson, grandma could pee standing"
December 16 2007, 5:23 PM
try getting most "grandmas" to use a secure os and browser.
it's possible, and unlikely. but we'll see what happens when everyone gets tired of windows. or how about a mac? no, i don't want a mac, but it's better than vista, right?
Her computer has AV and firewall protection! A stupid email could load a virus or trojan. Hackers can also use your PC if you leave it on all day! The whole thread is assinine!
Mikey, get an AV or something, because you seem to always protect your code! God forbid that you should lose the copyrighted stuff.
Ted
PS: If you don't wear a trojan, you may need to get one of those darned lawyers. Been there already.
I have no idea what they are, but sometimes, when I reboot, it says Updating Windows and sits for up to 5 minutes doing something.
They have resorted to doing invisible updates that can actually change your settings. I posted it in the Non-Qbasic Forum somewhere. I get a newsletter about Windows not written by M$.
>I have no idea what they are, but sometimes, when I reboot, it says Updating Windows and sits for up to 5 minutes doing something.
That sounds kinda weird. That might be malware or something. You have XP, right? In XP, the automatic updates are installed when you shut down the computer, selecting the shut down button with the multicolored shield, or at the time specified (usually 3 AM), or when you manually initiate it. They shouldn't be installed during a reboot. At what point in the reboot does it say they're being installed? As the computer is shutting down, or coming back up? I'd be suspicious that that is malware activity and not truly Windows updates.
In Windows 98SE, I often get a message when Windows starts up saying something like updating system files (or something), then it skips a few lines and says that it's complete and "continuing to load Windows". But that just takes a few seconds at most, and those can't be Windows updates. If you have the security center, you have XP or Vista, and this isn't what's happening to you.
>They have resorted to doing invisible updates that can actually change your settings.
All updates show up in the update history. Why not check the update history to see what was installed when? The file(s) for this should be in your SoftwareDistribution folder, or you can check it from the Microsoft Update website.
I've not heard of invisible updates, and I doubt Microsoft is doing that. Maybe someone left the setting to hide inactive system tray ("notification area") icons, and didn't see the yellow shield, and then got spooked into starting a rumor? Or maybe it's some sort of malware. It's really funny how many malware programs pretend to be security software. Smitfraud and Winantiviruspro were ones I ran into all the time when I worked at the Computer Store (they didn't pretend to be updates, but maybe a newer one does?).
If you don't already, I'd recommend using Spybot S&D, Windows Defender, and HiJackThis to check your computer for malware. I'd bet your invisible updates are malware activity.
