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Raymond.CC Blog

• June 30, 2008
• 13:33

  Houses Have an Alarm System To Prevent Thieves, So Do Laptops

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  When we leave home, we make sure that we’ve turned on our home alarm system. When the thieves trip any of the set up, the alarm will be activated with a loud intruder alarm noise hoping to scare the thieves off and also to get the attention of the neighbors. Some better alarm system can even call the defined phone number a few times or send text messages to inform that the alarm system has been tripped.

  This kind of home alarm system has been invented many many years ago but for a computer, it is relatively something new. Imagine this, when you’re in a library and need to go to a nearby book shelf to get a book, you’d have to carry along your laptop. Or when you’re at work where people walk in and out, you need to take your laptop with you whenever you leave your work desk for a while.

  What if I tell you that there is a way to set up a home alarm system on laptops?
  
  Laptop Alarm will ring a loud alarm if someone will try to steal your laptop! When the laptop is disconnected from AC-power (someone pulls the AC adapter plug out) or someone removes or moves the USB mouse the alarm will go off. The best part is even if you’ve muted the volume, it is still capable of playing the annoying alarm noise!

  Laptop Alarm will emit a LOUD ALARM on
  1. Loss of AC Power
  2. Shutdown / Log off
  3. Unplug of USB Mouse
  4. Mouse Movement

  Other than that, Laptop Alarm is also capable of sending text messages via SMS to your cellphone in future version. Currently the beta version 2.0 is testing this new feature. All you need to do is check what would you like to monitor and click the Lock Computer button. You are then presented with a locked screen where you can enter your password.

  

  It is important that you never plug a headphone in your laptop when you set the alarm! The sound generated by Laptop Alarm is very loud and may damage your ears. You should also set the sensitivity of the mouse movement to a higher number so that it doesn’t simply set the alarm when the mouse is being moved a little. Laptop Alarm is free, small in size and no installation required.

  [ Download Laptop Alarm ]

  There’s another tool similar to Laptop Alarm called A.L.A.R.M. but with less features.
  
  It silently sits in your system tray until you lock your workstation. If now somebody removes the A/C power connection to steal your laptop, A.L.A.R.M. will play a loud sound from your Laptop speakers until power is back again or you have unlocked your workstation. Of course, this is little protection from theft, but better than nothing if you have to leave your laptop or portable alone for a moment.

  [ Download A.L.A.R.M. ]
  

  Technorati Tags: security, alarm, laptop, notebook, thief

  

  
• June 29, 2008
• 13:30

  Fix Firefox 3 Crashing Problem Caused By Kaspersky 2009 Products

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  I’d have never thought that Kaspersky 2009 product is the culprit that causes Firefox 3 to crash randomly mainly because some people reported that they experienced Firefox 3 crashing on a newly installed Windows with a new Firefox profile. I could only remember that Firefox 3 RC1 was running perfectly fine and the crashing problem only started when I was using RC2. At first I thought that the crashing problem is caused by Firefox RC2 but I was wrong. I totally forgotten that Kaspersky 2009 products was released on 8th of June, which is 4 days later after installing Firefox 3 RC2.

  

  The reason why I did not suspect that Kaspersky is the cause of the crashing problem is because I totally disabled Kaspersky from startup. Again, I was wrong. Even though I’ve disabled Kaspersky from startup, it will still load some DLL files belonging to Kaspersky such as mzvkbd.dll, kloehk.dll, adialhk.dll and etc which will not be visible in Windows Task Manager.

  After spending many hours in checking and testing, I am pretty sure that this time I’ve found the fix for Firefox 3 crashing problem.
  
  You can try replicating the problem yourself if you have Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 or Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 with Firefox 3. Simply login to web based Gmail and try closing the tab. Firefox 3 should crash. Another problem which mEtRiX, our forum moderator is experiencing is when he clicks the Bookmarks from the menu bar, it opens the add bookmark dialog window instead of the bookmark drop down list.
  

  All this Firefox 3 crashing problem is caused by Kaspersky Internet Security’s new feature called Virtual Keyboard which is used for safe entry of logins and passwords to prevent keystroke logging.
  
  Kaspersky has confirmed the bug and they are in the midst of testing the fixed version which will be released in the coming weeks. I certainly can’t wait any longer because it is affecting my web browsing experience and I don’t want to use Opera or Internet Explorer. I had no choice but to look for a solution. I found a solution which I’ve tested for a few days and not a single Firefox 3 crash ever since.

  1. Download Sysinternals AutoRuns for Windows.

  2. Extract and run autoruns.exe

  3. Click AppInit tab and uncheck C:\Progra~1\Kasper~1\Kasper~1\mzvkbd.dll
  

  4. Restart your computer.

  Kaspersky Virtual Keyboard feature is only available for Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 but weirdly people who has Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 installed is also affected by this. Some people has reported that mzvkbd.dll file (the cause of Firefox 3 crash) is loaded onto the system even when they are using KAV 2009. One of the Kaspersky forum moderator admitted that they were included by mistake and will probably removed for good in the next build.

  It is absolutely safe in disabling mzvkbd.dll using Sysinternals Autoruns. When there is a new update for Kaspersky that fixes this problem, I’d advice you to enable back the DLL file.

  Thanks to bahamot for suggesting to me that Kaspersky might be the culprit which made me start investigating the problem from there.
  

  Technorati Tags: firefox3, crash, kaspersky, mzvkbd.dll, autoruns

  

  
• June 28, 2008
• 13:32

  Free Avira AntiVir Rescue System CD to Clean Unremovable Virus

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  Previously I’ve written about Kaspersky offering free Rescue Disk to clean virus without booting in to Windows. This is very useful when you have a computer that is unable to boot in to Windows caused by virus. All you need to do is to boot up the computer with Kaspersky Rescue Disk CD and it launch the latest Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 to scan your computer.

  However, problem with Kaspersky Rescue Disk is it is not updated frequently, unlike the free Kaspersky AVP Tool which is updated few times a day. Kaspersky Rescue Disk was last updated on 11 Jun 2008. I’ve tried to figure out a solution on how to manually update the virus definition but it seemed to be different. The Rescue Disk virus definition file extension is .kvc and the official Kaspersky virus definition is in .avc. Even some of the XML filenames are not identical.

  I am definitely not giving up on this but in the meantime, here is another Rescue CD alternative by Avira that can clean unremovable virus without booting into Windows. If you’ve read my research on which is the best Anti-Virus program, Avira AntiVir appears to be on top of the list after Kaspersky.
  
  The Avira AntiVir Rescue System is a linux-based application that allows accessing computers that cannot be booted anymore. Thus it is possible to repair a damaged system, to rescue data or to scan the system for virus infections. Just double-click on the rescue system package to burn it to a CD/DVD. You can then use this CD/DVD to boot your computer. The Avira AntiVir Rescue System is updated several times a day (contains the current virus definitions VDF) so that the most recent security updates are always available.

  

  Once you’ve booted up your computer with Avira Rescue System, you get a boot option to either boot from hard drive or AntiVir Rescue System. Press the number 2 on your keyboard to boot into AntiVir Rescue System. It will start loading linux and you get to select either deutsch or english. Next, drivers will be loaded, and when it completes, the Rescue System main menu will show.

  

  To scan a computer, select the second option “Scan” and hit enter. You get to select whether to scan all files, only program files or only boot sectors. You can then select either to log scanning events or try to repair infected files. If Rescue System is unable to repair infected files, you have the option to rename the files. Finally, you can select additional file types to scan such as dialers, jokes, games, and security privacy risk software. The whole process simplifies the command-line arguments so you don’t need to manually type the commands.

  The open command at the main menu will launch Linux console, not DOS command prompt. Unless you’re familiar with Linux commands, I wouldn’t recommend you selecting that option. If you’ve accidentally got into the linux console, press CTRL+F1 simultaneously to go back to Rescue System Main Menu.

  According to the latest report rom AV-Comparatives, Avira AntiVir scored the highest points for Retrospective / ProActive test on May 2008. It has the least false positives and fast on demand scanning speed.

  [ Download Avira AntiVir Rescue System ]
  

  Technorati Tags: avira, antivir, rescue, iso, cd

  

  
• June 27, 2008
• 13:32

  My Temporary Solution to Fix Mozilla Firefox 3 Random Crashing Problem

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  I’ve been using Firefox 3 since Release Candidate 1 (RC1) and what I really like about the new version is the improvement in time required to load web pages. Loading any websites seems to be much faster. However, the memory usage problem is there. Three weeks later came Firefox Release Candidate 2 (RC2) and I immediately downloaded and installed RC2 because it is suppose to fix more bugs.
  
  I started to experience real big problem with Firefox 3 RC2 that is intermittently crashing of the browser. I thought this is normal because it is still under testing and not a final stable release. Within a week, Firefox RC3 was released and it is the last RC before the final release. Updated to RC3, still the same crashing problem. About a week later, Firefox 3 final was released and I immediately updated my Firefox to the latest version hoping that the crashing problem would be fixed.

  Unfortunately even the final “stable” version of Firefox 3 is still crashing intermittently. Waited for nearly 2 weeks, but still no updates. This crashing problem is really annoying because it is intermittent and there is no way to replicate the problem. Firefox 3 can crash when opening a site with flash, opening a new tab, closing tab, filling up forms and etc… I’ve got really fed up with the problem and I had to find a solution.
  
  Sometimes I’d get a screen that says “firefox.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience. If you were in the middle of something, the information you were working on might be lost. For more information about this error, click here.”

  

  Clicking the more information link shows that there is a problem with mozcrt19.dll at offset 00006c6c. Sometimes it is caused by other DLL files.
  

  And sometimes Firefox 3 crash is caused by ModName unknown at offset 0521001d.
  

  There are times that Firefox 3 just crashes and closes itself. Immediately after that Mozilla Crash Report window will show asking me to report the problem to Firefox developers.
  

  Firstly, I uninstalled Firefox and deleted Firefox folders in Program Files. I then install a clean version of Firefox 3 and use a new profile. After using it for a while, Firefox 3 crashed again. It clearly shows that there are problems with Firefox 3 because I’ve already done a clean installation and using a new profile.

  I tried using the latest Opera but somehow I am not used to it. Some of the shortcut keys and mouse clicks are different. One example is I need to simultaneously press CTRL + SHIFT + LEFT CLICK to open a link in a new tab. As for Firefox, it only requires CTRL + LEFT CLICK to open a link in a new tab… Another problem is some of the websites doesn’t display correctly in Opera.

  I could revert back to Firefox 2 but I am so used to the speed in loading websites with Firefox 3. I remembered that the most stable version I used for Firefox 3 was RC1. What I did was I downloaded Firefox 3 RC1 Portable, extracted to my hard drive, copied my local profile to the portable version and voila, I am using Firefox 3 but no crashes. This is my temporary solution until the developer of Firefox fix the crashing problem. The local Firefox profile is usually installed in C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default.???\ Just copy the contents of that folder (except the cache directories) to the FirefoxPortable\Data\profile directory.

  I know that I will be exposed to security risk when using Firefox 3 RC1 but crashing few times a day is very annoying, unproductive and gets on my nerves. I have Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 and it should protect my computer from any malicious codes that is vulnerable to Firefox 3 RC1.

  Update: I noticed that an Add-on {972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}:3.0 is causing the crash. The weird thing is I don’t even have any add-on installed! I went to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\extensions and found a folder {972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd} with a install.rdf file inside. I removed the folder and so far it’s not crashing for me “yet”.

  [ Download Firefox 3 RC1 Portable ]
  

  Technorati Tags: firefox, crash, browser, internet, RC1

  

  
• June 26, 2008
• 13:32

  Unpopular FREE Rising AntiVirus Worthy of Praise - AVG FREE Alternative

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  I remembered once seeing this sentence at a website that says “nearly everyone and their DOG knows about AVG and is testing the latest AVG FREE version 8 right now”. I believe that is very true because I have a friend who is 50 over years old and he once “suggested” AVG to me… He is a business man and not even a computer literate person. That proves how successful AVG’s marketing is.

  In my opinion, the latest AVG 8 is a bit bloated and not as light as the previous version 7.5. In fact, many software has started to add more and more feature in every major release and that makes it bloated. If you’re using AVG FREE 8, I’d suggest you to switch to another one which I’ve tested and found to be better than AVG. Also, recently more and more Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 key that gotten from Barclay’s promotion has been blacklisted. You could switch to this antivirus if you want…
  
  RISING Antivirus 2008 is developed by a Chinese software company in Beijing. It protects your computers against all types of viruses, Trojans, Worms, Rootkits and other malicious programs. Ease of use, Active Defense technology, Patented Unknown Virus Scan&Clean technology and Patented Smartupdate technology make RISING Antivirus ‘ install-and-forget ‘ product that lets you focus on what you really want to do.

  

  RISING Antivirus Free Edition is a solution with no cost to personal users for the life of RISING Antivirus 2008 while still provides the SAME level of detection and protection capability as Rising Antivirus 2008. RISING Support centre will also provides technical support for Free Edition users. RISING expects more users can enjoy Lion-strong security protection.

  I’ve tested Rising Antivirus free edition on my desktop test system with a few trojans. Some are public versions which is detectable by most antiviruses and some private which can only be detected by certain good and powerful antivirus such as Kaspersky. When Rising AV sees the virus, it doesn’t immediately notify me that it has found a virus. Only when I try to run it, Rising File Monitor Alert appears telling me that it has found a virus and giving me the option to clean, delete or ignore the file. This is good because it doesn’t constantly scan in background which will slow down your computer. It can detect all public version of trojans that I try to copy to the computer.

  Next, I tried scanning a private version of trojan with Rising Antivirus but it did not detect anything. I was a bit disappointed, thinking that this is like any other free AVs out there that doesn’t have a good proactive engine. When I run the private trojan, it did not infect my system! I suspect that Rising Antivirus somehow blocked the threat. So I disabled all Rising Antivirus auto-protect, and ran the trojan again. Now the system is infected. I re-enabled auto-protect and ran Hidden Process Detection. It detected a hidden process which spawned by the trojan. I ran a scan on the memory and boot records and it was able to detect and remove the private trojan. I AM IMPRESSED! As you can see, although Rising Antivirus did not have the virus definition to identify the private trojan as a threat, but it can somehow block it from infecting the computer. Even if it is infected, it can detect hidden process and remove it from memory.

  Is Rising Antivirus a bloatware? Here are the process that I’ve identified which belongs to Rising Antivirus.
  ravtask.exe - 676K
  ravstub.exe - 3411K
  ravmond.exe - 8192K
  ravmon.exe - 2048K
  ccenter.exe -1652K
  All 5 processes above takes up about 15MB from memory. Since most of the computer nowadays come with at least 1GB of RAM, you wouldn’t really feel that Rising Antivirus is hogging on your computer. It is not heavy in system resource usage nor light. Moderate would be the best word to describe Rising Antivirus’ system resource usage.

  Rising Antivirus can run on Windows 98 up to Windows Vista 64 bit. The system requirements to run on non-Vista computer is Pentium3 500 MHz, 64 MB of RAM and a standard VGA 24-bit true color. As for Windows Vista, Pentium3 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM and a Standard VGA 24-bit true color.

  [ Download FREE Rising Antivirus ]
  

  Technorati Tags: rising, antivirus, free, security, avg

  

  
• June 25, 2008
• 13:32

  FREE Genuine Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008 Product Key Worth $199.95

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  I always believe that people who knows about computer living in the United States is very lucky. First of all, they can purchase nearly everything from the Internet and most of the time shipping it to your home is free! For people who live in other countries, we can order stuff from USA via the Internet but we’ll have to pay for the ridiculously expensive shipping fee and import tax which sometimes cost more than the product that we’re buying.

  

  Other than that, members in the Microsoft Professional Accountants? Network (US) can get one complimentary genuine product key license for Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008 worth $199.95 for FREE! The best part is joining the Microsoft Professional Accounts’ Network cost NOTHING!
  
  Office Accounting Professional 2008 is a complete accounting solution that helps small businesses save time managing everyday financial tasks, get organized, and grow their business online. With its familiar Microsoft Office interface, this program is easy to learn, so you can be productive right away. Smooth integration with other Microsoft Office programs makes information sharing simple and helps boost productivity.

  

  By organizing all of your business information in one place, Office Accounting Professional 2008 helps you find the right information at the right time, so you can make better-informed business decisions. Plus, new features will help you sell products online, get paid faster, work easily with your accountant, and more.

  To get the free complimentary license of Microsoft Office Accounting Professional, you’ll have to enroll your organization in the Microsoft Professional Accountants’ Network (MPAN). The steps includes providing your organization contact information, signing the Microsoft Partner Program legal agreement for your organization, and completing the registration process by providing profile information about you and your organization.

  If for some reason you’re unable to get your free complimentary Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008 product key after enrolling your organization in the MPAN, then you can head straight to [www.ideawins.com] to generate your free Microsoft Office product key and then download the X14-19363.EXE installer. You are only required to enter your email address and the weird part is Microsoft doesn’t even have simple validation for the email address format. You will need an internet connection to activate the Microsoft Office Accounting using the 25 character product key.

  

  Microsoft Office Accounting has a few version ranging from Express, Standard, Professional and Professional Plus. The Express version is free for anyone but it lacks of many features compared to Professional edition. Do take note that this complimentary free genuine Microsoft Office Accouting Professional 2008 product key is meant for members of Microsoft Professional Accountants? Network and not everyone. Trust me, even if you manage to get the free license, this software would be quite useless to you unless you know accounting. Microsoft Office Accounting is not like the normal Microsoft Office which contains Word, Access, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
  

  Technorati Tags: microsoft, office, accounting, free, license

• June 24, 2008
• 13:32

  Tweak, Tune and Optimize Latest Firefox 3 to Load Website Faster

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  I’ve been using Firefox 3 since Release Candidate 1 (RC1) right up till the final stable version which was released a week ago. The BETA version was released much earlier but I did not test it because it is usually very unstable and used for testing purposes only. As for Release Candidate, it is the final stage before a full release. After installing Firefox RC1, it worked perfectly with no crashes and I noticed that websites loads faster than Firefox 2. The only problem was the incompatible extensions which doesn’t effect me much because I only use FlashGot.

  Although the new Firefox 3 is able to load up website much faster than previous version of Firefox, there is still a way to speed up and optimize Firefox 3. I was skeptical at first, so I made a full backup of my Firefox profile, tuned Firefox 3 with a click and website loads EVEN FASTER!
  
  If you type about:config at the Firefox URL bar, a bunch of advance settings will appear. It’s not easy knowing which one to change will improve Firefox’s performance but you can find them on lots of Firefox related websites. Instead of manually changing the settings one by one, here is a very useful free software that is able to optimize the latest Firefox 3 with just a click.

  FireTune for Mozilla Firefox v1.x / 2.x / 3.x was developed for an easy and fast optimization of your browsing experience with Firefox. It is based on a collection of popular and well working optimization settings used and tested by the experts. Usually you have to optimize Firefox manually, which can be time consuming and difficult for the novice user. FireTune helps you here - it includes all the performance optimizations. The only thing you must do is: make your selection. FireTune does the work for you.

  

  According to your specific computer speed and internet connection speed, FireTune will optimize several internal settings of Firefox for better performance. FireTune does NOT modify the Firefox executable, or any other Firefox binary file. Everything can be undone easily provided you saved your original profile configuration file with FireTune’s profile backup feature before. Details on what exactly FireTune does can be found in the FireTune help file.

  The simple way to tell whether Firefox is faster after optimizing is to follow these instructions.
  1. Clear the Cache of Firefox and close Firefox
  2. Open Firefox, go to [www.numion.com] and do a speed test on http://www.neowin.net/. Note down the time taken to completely load the website.
  3. Clear the cache and close Firefox.
  Note: I’d advice you to go through step 1-3 a few times to get an average of load time before optimization.
  4. Tune your Firefox with FireTune.
  5. Start Firefox again, and repeat the speed test on http://www.neowin.net/
  6. Compare the displayed result with the result from the test before the optimization

  The developer of FireTune noticed a speed improvement of 2.05 seconds - the load time was 9.47 seconds before optimizations, and 7.42 seconds after optimization. I’ve tested it myself and also noticed a speed improvement of an average of 2-3 seconds. I visit many website and forums everyday and it could definitely save a lot of my time. Actually I’ve heard about FireTune long ago but never tested it. I am glad that I have now… If you are using the latest Firefox 3, I strongly recommend you to tweak, tune and optimize it with FireTune.

  [ Download FireTune v1.2 ]
  

  Technorati Tags: firetune, mozilla, firefox, optimize, tune

• June 23, 2008
• 13:32

  FREE MultiNetwork Manager 9 License ID and Key

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  A year ago I shared with you the best free network settings switcher software called Net Profiles. I am still using it because I very often connect my laptop to my clients’ networks. With this network switching tool, I can spend more time using the network and less time configuring it.

  I am going to start using a different network manager software called MultiNetwork Manager 9 which is much better than Net Profiles because it has more powerful features. Normally MultiNetwork Manager 9 cost $28.95 but I manage to find a way to get the License ID and Key to activate the program for free. If you are like me who uses laptop which involves in moving between different network environments, then MultiNetwork Manager 9 will help you to change your network configurations in a breeze.
  
  MultiNetwork Manager 9 allows you to connect to the internet and other networks independent of where you are by using auto-detection discovery functionality that automatically finds the correct settings for the network you are using or use the Profiles & Policies window to create or change your profile. The tool allows you to define and save network settings in configuration profiles for each location at which you may work, and to choose which profile you wish to use each time.

  

  With the “location sensing” functionality MultiNetwork Manager even suggests the appropriate profile to use when arriving at a known location. The profile is set up and suggested automatically and may be managed and changed in the current status window under settings/location sensing.

  MultiNetwork Manager includes many possibilities for advanced users or IT professionals to set up and manage security settings, WLAN settings and VPN connections. It includes various ways of pushing out or making profiles available for different locations, distribute scripts to be run, registry settings to be invoked or just simple but convenient things like the appropriate default printer at a certain location.

  MultiNetwork Manager 9 Features:

  Auto detection and one click connect

  Connection Wizards

  Remote security policies

  Network resource Wizards

  Automatically enable/disable file sharing or PFW

  Increase VPN success rate

  Distribute WLan security for known connection points

  Integrate dialer such as iPass

  Location Sensing and automatic application of profiles

  Push profiles

  Import/Export profiles

  Capture settings into profiles

  Comprehensive help file

  Profile management for location or situation adapted profiles

  One common interface for all connectivity and security needs

  Simply follow the few simple steps below to get the free promotional license id and key for MultiNetwork Manager 9.
  1. Go to [www.globesoft.com]

  2. Enter the promotion code MNM9FORFREE, any name, a working email address and click the submit button.

  3. Now check the email address that you’ve entered earlier. You should get an email from service-grp@globesoft.com with the subject “GlobeSoft, MultiNetwork Manager 9 license”. If you didn’t get it, check your spam/junk folder. Note down the License number and Key.

  4. Download MultiNetwork Manager 9 mnm_9x.exe and install.

  5. When running MultiNetwork Manager 9 the first time, you’ll be prompted to activate the program or continue evaluation. Click Activate button, enter the License ID and Key (password) at the MultiNetwork Manager Activation window and click the Activate button.
  
  Make sure your computer has internet connection because it needs to connect to the activation server to verify the license ID and key.

  Enjoy the fully license MultiNetwork Manager 9 for free!
  

  Technorati Tags: network, switch, multinetwork, manager, roaming

  

  
• June 22, 2008
• 13:32

  Monitor Folders For EXE or DLL being Added, Renamed or Modified

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  Recently I stumbled on a security software called Spy-The-Spy. This freeware is quite interesting and useful because it is made to spy on spywares. The developer of this tool figured that instead of building a database of spyware or try to figure out what registry belongs to spyware, he’ll just need simple tool that is able to notify him the very moment something is being installed on his computer.

  If you’re wondering how can this tool monitor for spywares, it is actually quite simple. It simply monitors system folders for any new exe’s or dll’s being added, modified or renamed. Windows and System32 folder is usually the main place where spyware makes a copy of itself or drop even more spywares. So by monitoring important folders, you instantly get to know if something is being installed on your computer without your knowledge.
  
  Spy-To-Spy sits in tray and watches folders you specified in settings. The folders include subfolders so you really just need to set C:\Windows to monitor all additions to Windows and System folders.

  

  Now anytime an EXE or DLL is added, renamed or modified in the monitored folder, a warning message will appear telling you which file has been added, renamed or modified.

  

  You have the option to add selected files to Quarantine. It will brute force kill the processes quickly one after another to avoid watchdogs and move the exe file to a Quarantine folder. You can also easily run SFC (System File Checker) from the menu in case if some system DLL files are modified and you have no backup for the file. Make sure you have the Windows disc with you because SFC requires it.

  By default, Spy-The-Spy monitors only the Windows folder. I’d advice you to monitor Program Files folder as well because trojan coders already aware that Windows and System32 folders are being carefully monitored by most security software. If you’d like to be extra safe, you can even monitor the whole C: drive. You won’t really be bugged by the notification because it only monitors EXE and DLL files. Other file formats are ignored.

  Spy-The-Spy is truly a simple and useful tool. It is small in size and takes up only 5MB from your memory. This tool is not perfect because it doesn’t monitor other dangerous file extension such as .PIF, .SCR, .VBS, .BAT and .CMD. Remember, Spy-The-Spy is only a file monitor. It doesn’t differentiate between real spyware and a legit file that has been added to watched folders.

  [ Download Spy-The-Spy ]
  

  Technorati Tags: monitor, folder, spyware, security, virus

  

  
• June 21, 2008
• 13:33

  Another Easy To Use Remote Access Software - ShowMyPC

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  I am always on the look out for a good and easy to use remote access software because I very frequently provide computer help remotely to users in other part of the world while I am sitting at home or office. Sometimes seeing the problem with my own eyes is much more easier than explaining it over the phone or via forum.

  Here is another easy to use free remote access software called ShowMyPC which works with firewall and without port forwarding. Pretty similar as Crossloop and TeamViewer. Let’s see if ShowMyPC is good enough to beat my favorite remote access software TeamViewer…
  
  
  ShowMyPC combines VNC remote access technology with an open-source SSH forwarding client to provide you with the option to allow other users to view and control your desktop. The remote user needs to download the standalone ShowMyPC application and can access your computer with just a password (no IP address needed). The temporary session password is automatically generated when you start the viewing session and must be provided to the remote user by email, phone or other means. If you have access to your own SSH server, you can use it instead of the one provided.

  ShowMyPC Features:

  Free

  Desktop and single Application Sharing

  Screen Recording

  Built using standard SSH and VNC software

  Use Private SSH server

  Schedule Meetings

  I will again use the same scenario as I’ve used before in TeamViewer and Crossloop article. Let’s say Joe wants to connect to Sharon’s computer to help her troubleshoot some computer problems.

  1. Both Joe and Sharon must download the latest ShowMyPC.

  2. Joe and Sharon will have to run the downloaded ShowMyPC. It will automatically extract the files in temporary folder and run the program. No installation is required.

  3. Since Sharon is the one getting help, she will click the “Show My PC Now” button. A 12 digit random access code will appear and she’ll give it to Joe.
  

  4. Joe clicks the View a Remote PC button and enters the 12 digit random access code.
  

  5. Joe is now connected to Sharon’s computer and able to view and control her computer.

  ShowMyPC application and the service, both utilize VNC for desktop sharing over SSH for secured communication. ShowMyPC software uses its pool of servers in the middle located across the globe to interconnect users. ShowMyPC doesn’t have to worry about the file transfer because this feature is already built-in to TightVNC.

  TightVNC also has another great feature which is Java Viewer. Now the person who is providing computer support can be on Windows, Mac OS or Linux because it runs on web browser through Java. Currently only Mac OS can support both Viewer and Desktop Sharing and I am sure it will support all platforms in future.

  The only advantage that ShowMyPC has over TeamViewer and Crossloop is the scheduled meetings. This feature enables multiple remote access connections rather than only one. ShowMyPC also tends to be slow because it uses SSH connections.

  My favorite is still TeamViewer but no harm having another alternative in case TeamViewer doesn’t work for some clients.

  [ Download ShowMyPC ]
  

  Technorati Tags: showmypc, remote, access, support, help

  

  
• June 20, 2008
• 13:30

  Fix Windows is Starting Slow Logon Caused by wlnotify.dll

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  mEtRiX, our forum moderator had an annoying computer problem for weeks which is it takes longer than usual to log on to Windows. He has already scanned his computer with Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 and Spybot but it did not fix the problem. He was only able to tell me that this slow logon issue is caused by executing wlnotify.dll file on startup. Searching in Google about wlnotify.dll reveals that it is a process info for Common DLL to receive Winlogon notifications.

  

  To know which file is causing the slow logon problem, you’ll have to enable verbose status message, a hidden feature in Microsoft Windows. Although we already know which file is the cause of the problem, we’ve had a pretty tough time trying to fix it as it wasn’t that easy. We couldn’t even find any solution to this problem in Google and other tech forums. So it’s up to us and yes, we finally found the reason why the “Windows is starting” screen get stuck because of wlnotify.dll file.
  
  I’ll write the troubleshooting steps so you’d know what to do when you have a similar problem. Sometimes when we need to troubleshoot a problem, we’ll have to go through step by step to narrow down the problem.

  1. Virus, trojans and spywares.
  - I know mEtRiX is very careful not to simply run any untrusted program, so it shouldn’t be a virus or spyware that is causing this. Moreover, he has already ran a full scan with KIS 2009 and Spybot.

  2. Windows Safe Mode
  - Booting into safe mode is very important because it shows that whether this problem is caused by some software or drivers. Unfortunately the problem still exist when he tried booting into Safe Mode.

  3. wlnotify.dll file
  - Another possible cause for this problem is a corrupted wlnotify.dll file. We’ve both checked the size of the DLL file and it matches at 92,672 bytes.

  4. Deleting wlnotify.dll
  - Tried renaming the file and Windows automatically replace a new wlnotify.dll file in C:\Windows\System32\ folder.

  5. Disabling Network Adapters
  - Safe Mode loads up networking support. Since wlnotify.dll file is for winlogon notifications, so I thought maybe Windows calls home whenever it is trying to log in. Both wireless and wired adapters are disabled in Device Manager, boot to Safe Mode again, still the same problem.

  6. TuneUp Utilities
  - mEtRiX mentioned that he has TuneUp Utilities and he guessed that it might be the settings there that is causing the problem. So I installed TuneUp Utilities on my test system and configured everything the same as he has configured on his computer. Restarted and my test system was able to boot up without issues.

  When I nearly ran out of idea on what else to check, I figure that I should also try to look for any errors in Events Viewer. Went to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer. Clicking on Application, Security, System or Internet Explorer shows “Unable to complete the operation on “System”. The interface is unknown.”. Turns out that mEtRiX had Event Viewer disabled from services. I asked him to enable back Event Viewer from services and then restart. Amazingly the slow logon problem which is caused by wlnotify.dll is gone! I tried replicating the problem on my desktop by disabling Event Viewer on my test system and indeed the log on time did take slightly longer than usual. Re-enabling Event Viewer solved the problem.

  If you’ve enable verbose status message and found that wlnotify.dll takes very long to execute, you should check your Event Viewer service and make sure that it is started. To check, go to Start > Run, type services.msc and click OK. Look for Event Log at the name column and double click. Make sure that the Startup type is set as Automatic and Service status is Started.
  
  

  Technorati Tags: wlnotify.dll, logon, slow, hang, windows

  

  
• June 19, 2008
• 13:30

  How To Download All Files From a Folder on a Website or FTP

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  Recently I’ve gotten a few inquiries on how to download all files from folder on a website. There are some websites that doesn’t have an index file and directory listing is enabled. When two of this requirements are met, you’ll see a web page that looks something like the image below.

  
  It’s not tough to download all files in a folder. All you need is a download manager that supports downloading all files from a page or an offline browser which is able to crawl on pages and download everything that it finds. Here are my recommendations on what software to use to download all files from a folder on a website or FTP.
  
  Like I mentioned earlier, there are a few methods. The first method that I’ll show you is how to download all files using Firefox. There is an excellent add-on called “DownThemAll” (or just dTa) which is a powerful yet easy-to-use Mozilla Firefox extension that lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more. It features an advanced accelerator that increases speed up to 400%, it allows you to pause and resume downloads at any time and, last but not least, it’s fully integrated into your favorite browser!

  

  All you need to do is to install the addon, go to the page that has all the files that you want to download, right click and select DownThemAll. The DownThemAll window will appear with a list of files for you to download. Check the files and click Start.

  [ Download DownThemAll! ]

  If you prefer to use your own download manager software such as Orbit or FlashGet, you can install FlashGot add-on for Firefox, which has a function “FlashGot All”. It grabs all the links found in the current page and dispatches them to the default download manager.

  

  [ Download FlashGot ]

  These add-on works very well but there’s one problem. If there are directories inside the folder that you want to download, these add-ons won’t crawl in to the folder and get all the files in there. It will only download the folder as an index.htm file. To really have a one click download them all software, you should use an offline browser software. Teleport Pro and Offline Explorer are very good offline browsers but they are sharewares. I found a free offline browser called GetleftToGo which doesn’t require installation and it is able to download files inside a directory.

  After downloading, extract and run GetleftToGo.exe. Go to File > Enter URL and enter the link that you want to download all the files. It will process the page and give you a list of files to download. You can easily select all the files by clicking the + for All. One important note is you must uncheck [To Parent Directory], or else it will also download whatever is in the parent directory.

  

  [ Download GetleftToGo ]

  If you want to download everything in a folder from FTP, the easiest way is to use a FTP client such as FileZilla. Just enter the server IP or host, port 21, username and password (if doesn’t allow anonymous login) and connect. You will see 2 panes, the left one is your computer and the right is the server. Simple drag the folder that you want to download from server to your computer and it will automatically download whatever is in the directory.

  [ Download FileZilla ]
  

  Technorati Tags: download, downthemall, flashgot, directory, folder

  

  
• June 18, 2008
• 12:31

  How To Troubleshoot Windows Startup, LogOff, Login and Shutdown Problems

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  Have you ever tried booting up Windows one day and it stuck at “Windows is starting up” screen for at least 15 minutes or longer before you could get to the user list? Or does your computer takes a lot of time before it can totally power down? Perhaps even logging off your user account is taking up a lot of time? If you’ve tried a lot of solutions but none worked and you are in the verge of formatting the hard drive to reinstall Windows, please see what do I have to say first.

  

  Recently I’ve just learned from mEtRiX, our forum moderator, that we can enable and show Windows Verbose Security Status Message. This setting allows you to configure Windows so that you receive very useful verbose startup, shutdown, logon, and logoff status messages. This may be helpful to in troubleshooting slow startup, shutdown, logon, or logoff behaviour.
  
  To enable verbose status message in Windows, just follow the few simple steps below.

  1. Go to Start > Run, type regedit and click OK.

  2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
  System

  3. Right click at an empty area on the right pane, select New > DWORD Value and type VerboseStatus.

  4. Now double click on the new verbosestatus key that you just created and enter the value data as 1.

  

  5. Again, right click at an empty area on the right pane, select NEW > DWORD Value and type DisableStatusMessages. By default, the value data should be 0. Leave it as it is.

  Now when you restart your computer, it will very quickly show you the DLL files that is executed during Windows is starting up screen. When you shutdown, it will tell you that it is playing logoff sound, stopping windows file protection, windows is shutting down and etc… Let’s say if it hangs a long time at Playing logoff sound when you shutdown your computer, you now know for sure that this shutdown problem is caused by the wave file being used for Windows LogOff.

  If Windows hangs at “Windows is starting up” and unable to get in Windows or safe mode at all, sorry to tell you that you won’t be able to use reg.exe in Recovery Console to modify your registry because it is not supported and will only tel you that the command is not recognized. There is a way to edit the registry offline by using BartPE boot CD. You can check out the guide here. You can also try running scandisk to scan your hard disk for problems, sfc to check system files, and finally windows repair or reinstallation to try to fix the problem.

  As you can see, there is no harm or performance loss in enabling Windows verbose status message. In my opinion, Microsoft should have enabled this feature by default! Good luck in fixing Windows startup, logoff, login and shutdown problems!
  

  Technorati Tags: verbose, windows, error, startup, hang

  

  
• June 17, 2008
• 13:31

  How To Create Full Windows Backup by Imaging Without Using Norton Ghost

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  I have desktop system that is only used for testing purposes. I install and test lots of software, play around with Windows configuration and system files, infect my test system with trojans to test the efficiency of an antivirus software, and many more! Because I mess around with my test system so much, I had to restore Windows at least once a week, or sometimes even up to a few times!

  Reinstalling Windows is a time consuming task and I never like doing that. Fortunately I’ve known about Norton Ghost many years ago and I’ve been using it to create an image of my hard drive, so I can easily restore everything back to the original clean state within minutes. However, Norton Ghost is not free. There are other freeware that is able to create disk image but I am never satisfied with it, so I am stuck with Norton Ghost for nearly 10 years…

  I think I am going to make a change starting from today because I discovered a very powerful disk imaging software which is FREE!
  
  Macrium Reflect is a backup and disk imaging software program for Microsoft Windows developed by Paramount Software UK Ltd in 2006. It creates disk images and file backup archives using Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service to ensure ‘point in time’ data accuracy. This means that you can create a full backup of your hard drive through imaging even when you’re logged on in Windows.

  

  There are 2 versions of Macrium Reflect. The free and full version. The free version can only be used on Windows XP and Vista. You’re able to create disk or partition images and access them from Windows Explorer. It has a scheduler where you can create backup from the defined time. Finally it can also create Linux Rescue CD or BartPE Rescue CD, which has network support so you can save the created image to another computer. You can directly burn the Live CD from the software.

  As for the full version, it has all the features in free version plus the following: Windows Server 2003 compatibility, File and Folder backup and restore, Differential disk images and backups, Incremental disk images and backups, VBScript Generator, Email notifications, Run programs before or after backup, Shut down PC after backup, Windows system event log support, Windows PE 2.0 Rescue CD with RAID support, Windows boot menu, Technical support by email and forum access.

  Although it’d be nice to have all the features in the full version, the free version is good enough to help me easily restore Windows within minutes.

  Let me take you through a simple step-by-step disk imaging with Macrium Reflect FREE Edition. Let’s say Windows is installed at C: drive and D: would be your CD/DVD drive. I’d advice you to create another partition (E: drive) to save the backup image.

  1. Run Macrium Reflect
  2. Click Backup from the menu bar and select Create Image.
  
  3. Create Backup Wizard will appear. Click Next, and select the partition that you want to backup. Select C: drive and click Next.
  
  4. Now select Local Hard Disk and browse to E: drive. Click Next
  5. Click Finish to begin imaging.
  When the imaging completes, you should have a file with random letters and numbers with the extension .mrimg at your E: drive. That’s the image of your C: drive.

  Next, you’ll have to create a Rescue CD.
  1. Run Macrium Reflect
  2. Click Other Tasks from menu bar and select Create Rescue CD.
  I’d prefer to use Linux, so select Linux and click Next.
  
  3. Put in a blank CDR disc into your CD/DVD drive and click Finish.

  When your Windows system goes haywire or refuse to boot up, then you will have to start your PC using a rescue CD. Just boot up your computer with the Linux Rescue CD that you just created. Follow the on-screen instructions from Restore Wizard to recover partitions from your saved image file.

  When your computer has a system or software that is hard to configure and get it right, it’d be best to create an image of your partition as a precaution. Whenever the system or software doesn’t work and you can’t get people to help you to fix it, the easiest way to fix it yourself is by restoring from the image that you created while it is still working. There you go, no need to use Norton Ghost because Macrium Reflect can do the job.

  [ Download Macrium Reflect FREE EDition ]
  

  Technorati Tags: image, backup, macrium, reflect, ghost

  

  
• June 16, 2008
• 13:31

  Kaspersky Offers FREE Rescue Disk To Clean Virus Without Booting in Windows

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  Some virus are very destructive or badly coded until it affects Windows stability. One of the worst thing that could happen is you’re unable to boot in to Windows and not even Safe Mode. That makes it harder for tech people to troubleshoot the problem and ended up in reformatting the hard drive to reinstall Windows. Last year I written a guide on how to clean or remove virus when you can’t boot in to Windows using Hiren’s BootCD.

  However, Hiren’s BootCD only has F-Prot and McAfee dos based antivirus, which I personally think that it is not strong or smart enough to detect and remove some viruses. The only antivirus program that I can put my trust on is Kaspersky.

  Good news is Kaspersky has started offering Rescue Disk to scan and remove virus on computer without the need of booting in to Windows.
  
  Kaspersky Rescue Disk offers a safe way to remove viruses from a computer without the risk of getting infected. Boot from the Kaspersky Rescue Disk to scan and remove threats from an infected computer without the risk of infecting other files or computers. All you need to do is the download the ISO file, burn the ISO image to a CD, insert it into the infected system’s CD-ROM drive, enter the PC’s BIOS, set it to boot from the CD and reboot the computer.

  Here’s the detailed step-by-step on how to use Kaspersky Rescue Disk.
  1. Download Kaspersky Rescue Disk ISO.

  2. Burn the ISO with your CD/DVD burning software. If you don’t have one, you can use ImgBurn. You can follow the guide on this page on how to burn ISO to a CD using ImgBurn.

  3. After finished burning Kaspersky Rescue Disk to CD, insert the CD to your CD/DVD-ROM, and boot up your computer with it.

  4. You will get a screen that looks like below. Hit the ENTER key to start booting the Anti-Virus using linux.
  

  5. Once everything is loaded, the latest Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 will load. Simple check the hard drives that you want to scan and click Start scan.
  

  Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 or Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 allows you to create your own Recue Disk. Open KAV or KIS, click SCAN, choose Create Rescue Disk. Just follow the instruction and you will have your own made Rescue Disk. However, the rescue disk that you create from Kaspersky is different from the one that you download from Kaspersky website. The one that you create from Kaspersky software is designed to restore system functionality after a virus attack that damaged system files of the operating system and made it impossible to startup and to be used only on the computer that it was created on. Using the disk on other computers could lead to unforeseeable consequences, since it contains information about the parameters of a specific computer.

  As for Kaspersky Rescue Disk that you download from Kaspersky website, it is like an on-demand virus scanner that allows you to scan and remove virus without booting in Windows. When Windows is running, virus are active and sometimes it is tough to remove them. So the most effective way of removing virus is when they are inactive.

  [ Download Kaspersky Rescue Disk ]
  

  Technorati Tags: kaspersky, rescue, disk, antivirus, boot

  

  
• June 15, 2008
• 13:30

  Create Online Meetings, Screen Sharing and Remote Control for FREE With Mikogo

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  Recently I found a bug on a Wordpress plugin and reported the problem to the developer. However, they were not convinced that the problem is caused by the plugin even though I’ve submitted screenshots along with the description of the problem. So I had to use a screen recording software “SCREEN2EXE” to record a video when replicating the problem. After seeing the video, they finally admitted that it is caused by their script.

  Instead of recording a video and uploading it to a server for the them to download, here’s another idea which I just thought of that can simplify the whole process. Why not create an online presentation from my computer where they can just easily connect to my PC and I show them how I replicate the problem?

  There are many companies such as GoToMeeting and WebEx that is offering such service but they charge money. Here is Mikogo, a relatively new software that offers online meetings, screen sharing, remote control, file transfer, all these services for free!
  
  
  Mikogo is a free online desktop sharing tool full of features to assist you in conducting the perfect online presentation. Take advantage of the opportunity to conduct presentations in true color quality across the world with up to 10 participants simultaneously, while still sitting at your desk! Mikogo is completely secure as they are using industry-leading 256-AES end-to-end encryption.

  During a meeting, users are able to:

  share each others’ screens

  change presenters

  access remote control

  pause transmission

  select only certain applications for sharing

  transfer files

  There are 2 different roles in an online meeting with Mikogo. The person who creates the online meeting and the people who will be joining the meeting. Here is how to create an online meeting with Mikogo.

  The person who creates the meeting:
  1. Download and install Mikogo.
  2. Run Mikogo and at the tray bar, you will see a M icon. Right click on the M icon and select Create account. Enter your name, email address and click Continue. Now check your email to get your password.
  
  3. Right click the M icon at the tray bar and select Start Meeting.
  4. Enter your username, password, email and click OK. It will test connection and start meeting.
  5. You’ll need to provide the Meeting ID to people who wants to join in the meeting.
  

  The person who will be joining the meeting:
  1. Download Mikogo Join Meeting tool. This tool is only meant to join meetings. It is smaller in size and requires no installation.
  2. Enter Meeting ID, name and click Join Meeting.
  

  That’s it! It is that simple! Did you notice that there is no router configuration needed? No port forwarding, no IP, and etc. It’s all automated. All you need is the Meeting ID.

  Mikogo also has a Firefox add-on which allows you to start or join a meeting even easier. After installing the add-on, a M icon will appear at top right of the Firefox browser. Clicking the drop down button will give you the option to join or start a meeting.
  

  If you wonder how Mikogo is able to provide their software and service for free, that’s because they have several subscription based screen sharing services (www.BeamYourScreen.com, www.Beam2Support.com, www.Beam2Present.com) and their technology is used by other desktop sharing and online collaboration providers.

  Currently Mikogo is lacking of communication feature which is Chat or Voice. They do have Mikogo Skype Extras but I think there are more people using Windows Live Messenger than Skype. I am one of them that doesn’t use Skype Another improvement that I would suggest is the ability to detect whether the meeting will be through LAN or WAN. If a company that is on the same LAN would like to have a presentation, going through Internet will be quite slow.

  Some people might want to compare other remote access software such as CrossLoop and TeamViewer with Mikogo but I don’t think it’s fair because those tools are used mainly for providing remote computer support. Mikogo is more for online presentation and online meetings.

  [ Download Mikogo ]
  

  Technorati Tags: mikogo, meeting, remote, access, sharing

  

  
• June 14, 2008
• 13:31

  Beware of PICS FOR MSN FRIENDS Phishing Websites

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  Recently I’ve noticed more and more people sending me offline messages to my Windows Live Messenger that contains only a link and nothing else. The weirdest part was some of the message came from contacts that were really old which I’ve removed from my list long ago. I noticed that most of the link uses .info generic top-level domain name and some of the letters are being replaced with numbers such as number 1 for letter L, number 5 for letter S and etc. The messages are being sent offline and the main page uses indexxx.php file.

  

  Clicking on the link will bring me to a page with a webform that looks like the latest Windows Live Messenger asking me to login with my MSN to continue. It is a phishing site which is supposed to represent “100% real and upcoming Messenger Community Site” called PICS FOR MSN FRIENDS (v1.1c).
  

  If you got such message from your friends, do not panic because both you and your friends are not being infected by MSN virus. Only your friend’s account has been compromised. Here’s what you should do when you receive such message.
  
  First thing is to tell your friends to change their password. By doing that, the bots can no longer access your friend’s MSN account and spam their contact list.

  To change or reset the password for your Windows Live Messenger account, follow these steps:
  1. Go to [login.live.com] web page and then click Forgot Your Password.
  2. Type in your MSN e-mail address, type the characters that appear in the Picture box, and then click Continue.
  3. Click Send yourself a password reset e-mail message.
  4. Click Send Message.
  5. On the confirmation page, click Done.
  6. Sign in to your e-mail account, and then click the link in the e-mail message to reset your password.
  7. On the Confirm your e-mail address page, type your e-mail address, and then click Continue.
  8. Type your new password two times, and then click Continue.
  9. If you want to enter an “alternate” e-mail address, type the address two times, and then click Continue. If you do not want to enter an “alternate” e-mail address, click Skip.
  10. When you receive the “You’ve changed your password” message, click Done.

  Some examples of the links are the below but please DO NOT enter your MSN email and password! I’m sure there are a whole lot more, so be very careful not to simple enter your MSN login details.

  username.bl1ng.info

  username.jumphost.info

  username.n1cestuff.info

  checkdiz.info

  username.awes0me.info

  username.ther1ng.info

  username.snapsh0t.info

  username.ch33se.info

  c0ol-th1ng.info

  imgeshack.info

  m0bil3.info

  If you know any other sites that is the same, please leave a comment so I can add it in the list. I am not sure if we can do anything to these websites because it does say that “By logging in you accept the Terms and Conditions”. The terms are “By filling out this form, you authorize TST Management, Inc to spread the word about this 100% real and upcomming Messenger Community Site. By using our service/website you hereby fully authorize TST Management, Inc to send messages
  of a commercial nature via Instant Messages and E-Mails on behalf of third parties via the information
  you provide us.” What we can do is to be cautious and do not simply enter our login information to any websites.

  Note: If you suspect that it might be a virus, try scanning your computer with free Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool or MSN Photo Virus Remover.
  

  Technorati Tags: phishing, msn, live, virus, phish

  

  
• June 13, 2008
• 13:31

  Microsoft Offers Free Hard Drive Virtualization for Windows

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  Hard drive virtualization is very important when you’re managing hundreds of computers at a library, cybercafe or a school institute. One of the place where I am working at has more than 500 workstations and is used by students. Even though the students are on restricted limited account, some smart virus still manage to infect the whole computer. I’ve spent countless of hours just by scanning and removing virus. Some virus even made it impossible to clean that I had to reinstall the whole system.

  Antivirus don’t really help much because new undetected virus can still infect the computer. So the best is to use a virtualization software. Previously I’ve mentioned about Returnil Virtual System which is able to restore everything to its original state by a reboot. They have a free version but it is only for personal use, not commercial use. The finance people checked the price and told me that they couldn’t afford it. So I had to use another solution…
  
  Windows SteadyState is a tool developed by Microsoft that gives administrators enhanced options for configuring shared computers, such as hard drive protection and advanced user management. It is primarily designed for use on computers shared by multiple people, such as internet cafes, schools, libraries etc. SteadyState is the successor to the Shared Computer Toolkit. SteadyState is available free of charge from Microsoft for computers running genuine copies of Windows XP and Vista.

  

  There are Global Computer Settings and User Settings. For global computer settings, you can set computer restrictions, schedule software updates and protect the hard disk using Windows Disk Protection. When Windows Disk Protection is turned on, it has the ability to revert a computer to a previously stored state every time it reboots, or when an administrator sets it to. The good thing about it is the user’s My Document would not be affected by the virtualization, which allows the user to save their work there.

  As for User Settings, you can find 4 tabs which is General, Windows Restrictions, Feature Restrictions and Block Programs. In General, you’re able to configure session timers to define the duration of a logon session or of the idle time before a session terminates. On the Windows Restrictions tab, you can set restriction levels that define the content of menus and the Windows XP or Windows Vista tools and features that a user has access to. As for the Feature Restriction tab, you can select restrictions that will prevent users from accessing a program attributes that could damage or clutter the computer. Finally on the Block Programs tab, you can select the software you want to prevent the user from accessing.

  Actually I got to know about Windows SteadyState early this year. Tried it and it made my computer really slow. Other than that, my computer takes more time to boot in Windows. Well, I was using Windows SteadyState 2.5 Beta back then which is unstable. Few days ago Microsoft released stable final version of Windows SteadyState 2.5, which adds support for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. I believe they’ve fixed the “hang” problem as well.

  I’ve tested the latest SteadyState 2.5, it is much better than the BETA version and I noticed it increased my computer’s boot up time by a few seconds. I am willing to give up the few seconds rather than spending hours in scanning and cleaning up virus. Here’s how a high restrictions limited account desktop looks like.

  

  One important note, any administrator is able to run Windows SteadyState because it doesn’t have the ability to password protect itself. So make sure you create a limited user account and let them log in as limited user, not administrator.

  [ Download Windows SteadyState 2.5 ]
  

  Technorati Tags: windows, microsoft, virtual, steadystate, security

  

  
• June 12, 2008
• 13:31

  RapidShare Cats CAPTCHA Hacked and Auto Recognized by CryptLoad

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  Nearly 2 months ago RapidShare implemented a new and difficult to beat CAPTCHA system. The CAPTCHAs are displayed as up to 8 warped alphanumeric characters, each with a dog or a cat printed over them. The user then is instructed to type in the 4 letters (although technically some “letters” are actually numbers) with the cat on them.

  

  As you can see that it is tough to us humans for recognize which characters has cats at the sample RapidShare CAPTCHA image above! This new update has gone a little too far just because they want to break CryptLoad, USDownloader, (E)lephant and RSD auto CAPTCHA decryption. All those tools were unable to auto recognized RapidShare CAPTCHA codes for more than a month but now CryptLoad has managed to find a way to decode and auto recognize RapidShare CAPTCHA with cats! Unlimited RapidShare downloading is AGAIN possible with CryptLoad.
  
  I won’t be explaining about how to use CryptLoad because I’ve already written about it last year. If you haven’t read that article, here’s the link. It gives you an idea what is Cryptload, what it can do and how to use it in step-by-step. Basically CryptLoad is a free software that can download from RapidShare as a free user as if they were a premium user. There is no need to wait to continue downloading the next file and also there is no need to enter the confusing CAPTCHA codes as it is recognized and entered automatically.

  When I got to know that latest CryptLoad is able to auto recognized RapidShare CAPTCHA, I was very excited to test it but wasn’t able to because RapidShare happy hours were still active. I had wait until at night when the happy hours are deactivated. I ran CryptLoad, added a rapidshare link, and the 4 letters containing cats were instantly and automatically entered without feeling that it had to go through some kind of OCR program.
  

  CryptLoad has improved a lot since the last time I’ve written about it. One of the biggest update is the online CryptLoad CLR-Creator. Previously if we want CryptLoad to support our router for reconnect, we’ll have to contact one of the creator of Cryptload to help us create the CLR file. But now, we can do it ourselves. Just install Live HTTP Headers plugin for Firefox and capture the text data when you manually reconnect the Internet from your router. Paste the text data into the online Cryptload CLR-Creator and it will create a CLR file that supports your router. You can refer to CryptLoad WIKI on how to do that.

  Other than that, everything else is pretty much the same. Their next major update CryptLoad version 2 will be much lighter and support Mac OS, Linux and possibly PS3! Keep up the good work Apokalyser, Borka and Shira! Although some people say that other tools are better, I personally felt that CryptLoad is the best!

  I just want to clarify that CryptLoad is a download manager for file hosting websites that supports a lot of powerful features and it is NOT a hacking tool. Thanks Frank Z. for sharing this latest news with me!

  [ Download CryptLoad 1.1.0 ]
  

  Technorati Tags: cryptload, download, rapidshare, captcha, cats

  

  
• June 11, 2008
• 13:31

  Fix AVG Incompatible Software Problem During Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 Installation

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  Yesterday I’ve posted a trick on how to obtain Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 license key for free and I believe many has successfully got the key. From the comments on the article and forum, I found out that many people is unable to install Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 due to an incompatible software that is installed on the computer, specifically AVG 8. The error windows shows a message “Attention! Some incompatible software is installed on your computer. These applications cannot be used together with Kaspersky Internet Security 2009. In order to proceed with the installation, remove these applications.”

  

  Selecting the incompatible software from the list and clicking the Remove button will launch Add or Remove Programs. Then another error “In order to proceed with the installation, please remove incompatible software (it is recommended to reboot your computer after uninstallation). Then run the installation again” The weird part was, AVG 8 has already been uninstalled on my test system!

  After investigating the Windows registry, I found cause of the problem (registry keys) that is causing AVG incompatible software problem during Kaspersky installation.
  
  I noticed that the Next button is blurred or grayed out. So I thought maybe I can use TurnItOn or DM2 to enable and access the restricted Next button. Tried but it doesn’t work.

  The method that Kaspersky suggested on how to skip scan for incompatible Software when installing Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 or Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 is at this link. This way of fixing the problem can be somehow confusing for computer beginners because it involves folder options setting, going to a hidden All Users application data folder, open up command prompt and launch the setup.exe via command line switch.

  I think the fix that I found myself would be much easier. Just launch Windows registry and navigate to the keys involved, back it up and then delete it. Here it goes.

  1. Go to Start > Run.

  2. Type regedit and click OK.

  3. Navigate to this following registry key:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\

  
  right click the key, select Export and save it on your computer. Then delete AVG key. Try installing Kaspersky (kis8.0.0.357.exe) again. If it still doesn’t work, then run regedit again, navigate to:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\

  
  right click the key, select Export and save it on your computer. Then delete AVG8Uninstall key. You should be able to install Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 now without getting the incompatible software prompt. This is fix is only if AVG is listed in the incompatible software window. If you have Norton, you can look for Norton/Symantec registry key at the same location above and delete it.

  This option is recommended ONLY if you are absolutely sure that the third-party software was deleted but is still detected by the Setup Wizard of Kaspersky Internet Security version 2009. Otherwise after the program installation the operating system may malfunction and even crash.

  For a list of incompatible software with Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, you can visit this page.

  I actually had this problem when I was installing KIS 2009 on my test system but was somehow able to install KIS 2009 over it even if I got the incompatible software message. I can’t really remember how but I got through it. But if you’re unable to, you can use the solution above. Enjoy Kaspersky Internet Security 2009!
  

  Technorati Tags: kaspersky, incompatible, install, setup, avg

  

  
• June 10, 2008
• 13:30

  FREE 1 Year Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 Genuine License Key for EVERYONE

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  Few days ago Kaspersky 2009 product was released and I was excited as hell to give out free Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 license key to my subscribers. I have the 30 KIS license keys with me and it’s ready to be given out next week. Nearly 300 applicants has taken part in the draw. What if I tell you that there is no need for me to give the 30 KIS license, and all 300 of you, including the ones that haven’t taken part can now get it yourself for FREE!
  
  Do you all still remember the article on how to obtain free 1 year Kaspersky Anti-Virus genuine license key for everyone which I posted 3 months ago? I am sure it has benefited hundreds, if not thousands of people for this free KAV license. However, the promotion only lasted a few days which wasn’t long enough for more people to get the free license key.

  Listen carefully people and BE FAST because here is another trick that allows ANYONE to get free 1 YEAR Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 license key which can be used on 3 computers!
  
  Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 is the all-in-one security solution that offers a worry-free computing environment for you and your family. It has tons of features which is capable of protecting your computer from old, current and future security threats.

  1. Go to this page and click the blue link that says “To get free protection, go to the Kaspersky Barclays offer page“.
  

  2. Select your title, enter your first name, last name and REAL email address. As for Online Banking membership number, enter 12 digit number that starts with 2010. An example of the 12 digit online banking membership number format is 201056789112.
  

  3. Now check the email address that you’ve entered earlier. You should get an email from Kaspersky Lab (pleasedonotreply@kasperskylab.co.uk) with the subject “Register with Kaspersky”. If you didn’t get it, check your spam/junk folder. Click the activation link at the bottom of the email.

  4. Your default browser will open. Click the Next button to submit your email confirmation ID.
  

  5. Check your email again. You should get another email from Kaspersky Lab (pleasedonotreply@kasperskylab.co.uk) with the subject “Your Kaspersky Activation Code and download instructions”. Note down the activation code. That’s the genuine license key for Kaspersky Internet Security 2009.

  6. Download latest Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 8.0.0.357 and install.

  7. Follow the instructions and when you get to the part where it ask you to activate the application, click Activate online. Just paste the activation code and click Next. You might need to create an account with Kaspersky as you’re entitled to product technical support. Enjoy having Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 on your computer for 365 days without paying a single cent!
  

  Thanks to Relequestual for emailing and informing me about Barclays Bank customers that uses their online service can get free Kaspersky Internet Security. This Kaspersky key can be used on 3 computers and you get round-the-clock technical support from Kaspersky.

  2 years ago, Barclay bank signed a deal with F-Secure for 1.6 million licenses. Now if I am not wrong, Barclay is also paying for every KIS license that is generated from Kaspersky’s website. So be quick and get your free Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 license before Kaspersky and Barclay notice this leak and close it. See, no harm in subscribing to Raymond.CC’s Newsletter because I bring you the best tips and tricks.
  

  Technorati Tags: kaspersky, KIS, 2009, free, license, key

  

  
• June 09, 2008
• 13:30

  FREE 1 Year Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 version 8 License Key for Subscribers

   » ‎ Raymond.CC Blog

  
  The latest stable Kaspersky 2009 product has finally been released to public! Kaspersky 2009 is actually version 8, but they decided to call it 2009. For those who manage to obtain the free 1 year Kaspersky Anti-Virus license key through a trick I shared with all of you early this year, you can download and install the latest Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 as it will automatically accept your current kaspersky license key.
  
  I have to admit that Kaspersky version 7 does takes up quite a lot of resources. Now I’ve tested both Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 and Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 and it is much lighter than the previous version 7. The new Kaspersky 2009 interfaces have also been redesigned, making them more transparent for beginners and experienced users alike. Information about protection status and any actions which need to be taken is also presented in clear and simple format.

  I am excited about this release and I am sure you are too! So I am giving away 30, yes THIRTY 1 year Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 license to my lucky subscribers. For your information, Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 cost $59.95 for 1 year and the 30 license that I am giving away is paid with my own money. Here’s how to win the free 1 year Kaspersky Internet Security license key to protect you from any Internet threats for 365 days.
  
  As usual, I’m giving this free Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 license key to my subscribers. If you haven’t subscribe, just enter your email at the top right hand side and hit the subscribe button.

  

  Next, you need to enter the random text characters and hit the Complete Subscription Request button. Finally, you need to check your email inbox for a verification message from FeedBurner’s “confirmations@emailenfuego.com” and click a link listed in this message to activate your subscription. If you got it right, you should see a message that says “Email Subscription Confirmed!” at your web browser.

  

  Final step is MOST important. Leave a comment below with the email address you’ve used to subscribed to Raymond.CC’s newsletter. The lucky winner will be picked and announced next week. (16th June 2008).

  Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 is the all-in-one security solution that offers a worry-free computing environment for you and your family.

  

  Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 Features:

  Protects from viruses, Trojans and worm

  Protects from spyware and adware

  Scans files, email messages and Internet traffic

  Protects instant messengers (ICQ, MSN)

  Proactive protection from unknown threats

  Two-way personal firewall; secure Wi-Fi and VPN connections

  Application rules configured automatically New!

  Security rating assigned to unknown applications New!

  Access to user’s resources and data is restricted for unknown applications New!

  Scans operating system and installed applications for vulnerabilities New!

  Disables links to malware sites New!

  Global threat monitoring (Kaspersky® Security Network) New!

  Program can be installed on infected computers

  Self-protection from malware

  Restores correct system settings after removing malicious software New!

  Disables links to phishing websites

  Virtual keyboard for safe entry of logins and passwords New!

  Prevents theft of data exchanged via secure connections (HTTPS / SSL) New!

  Parental control

  Improved antispam protection

  Automatic configuration

  Wizards for common tasks New!

  Automatic or interactive mode New!

  Round-the-clock technical support

  Automatic database updates

  Yeah I know that is a lot of features in KIS and enabling all of them can possibly slow down your computer. You can always turn off some features which you think it’s not so necessary such as Firewall, antispam and etc. The system requirement for KIS 2009 is only 256MB of ram for Windows XP and 512MB for Vista.

  Usually there will be around 100+ subscribers taking part in a giveaway draw. Since I am giving away 30 Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 license key, the chances of you winning a key is around 20-30%. So just subscribe and participate in this lucky draw which might just win you a free Kaspersky Internet Security genuine license key code!
  

  Technorati Tags: kaspersky, 2009, kis