Creative Commons

Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from “All Rights Reserved” to “Some Rights Reserved.”

Fake MS Malicious Software Tool

While surfing the net this morning I received this pop-up window.  It looked just like it came from the windows update, lower right corner.  After a few seconds with out clicking on anything, a download window with an executable file poped up.  

 

However, I was using the Firefox browser and knew something was wrong.  I stopped all Internet activity with Zone Alarm firewall so I could investigate and kill it.  The avarage user would likeley have installed this thing.

Troj/Tfactory-A

Troj/Tfactory-A is a Trojan which claims to remove spyware and adware from your computer.

Web surfers are presented with what appears to be a popup window advising them to download the latest version of Microsoft’s Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, in reality, the popup window is just part of a larger image that takes up most of the computer screen. If the user clicks anywhere on this image, his computer will then begin to download the Trojan program.

Troj/Tfactory-A sets various registry entries and downloads various dummy files, so that it can then report these dummy installations of spyware and adware, in an attempt to coerce users into buying spyware and adware removal software.

Troj/Tfactory-A displays popup messages with text such as:

‘This notice is brought to you by Windows Security Center.’
‘Download spyware remover now and run full system scan to remove trojans, viruses and spyware from your PC…’
‘Your computer running slower than usual! It maybe infected with dangerous spyware or adware. Full system scan is highly recommended to remove possible malicious spyware from your computer.’
‘Windows Security Center – Alert!’
‘Windows Security Center has detected spyware activity on your computer! Click here to remove spyware…’
‘Click here to remove spyware and adware from your computer immediately…’
‘Click to remove spyware and adware from your computer…’
‘Click here to remove spyware, adware, trojans and viruses from your computer…’
‘Protect your computer. Download spyware remover to remove spyware and protect your data and privacy.’
‘Windows has detected spyware on your computer! Full system scan is highly recommended to remove spyware.’
‘Danger! Spyware activity detected on your computer…’

Troj/Tfactory-A installs itself and downloads a long list of files.

see: http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/trojtfactorya.html 

EXPORT your “Custom dictionary” MSWord

also see: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326524

Depending on your operating system (win 95/98 or CCE) your custom file is in a different directory.

1) Find your Custom dictionary, by clicking on start in the lower right hand corner of your tool bar.  On the pop up menu select find, and then select files or folders.

2) In the find screen type in “*.dic” without the quotes. In the middle of the find menu.

3) You will probably have 3 or 4 dictionary files listed; however, you want to select the one named “CUSTOM.DIC that resides in MSWord directory.

4) At this point, in the lower portion of the find box, right click on the correct file (CUSTON.DIC), then on the drop down menu choose copy.

5) Now if you are going to send this file along with your manuscript, either of the following ways, floppy / cd / email what ever, go to the directory where the other files are on your PC and right click on the directory name then choose paste from the drop down menu.

6) It would be a good idea to rename CUSTON.DIC. to your survey name or number. Do NOT change the extension from .DIC. Example 701.DIC or FortBliss.DIC.

7) The CUSTOM.DIC file is a copy of your own dictionary that you have created over time. You build this file and add to it, every time you did spell check in MSWord and Word did not recognize a certain word, and you clicked on learn.
The purpose of sending in your customized dictionary in is to assist in the editing of your survey area manuscript, with all the “unique names” of locations, OSD’s, TUDS, MUDS etc.

This file can and maybe should be edited if you have the same word more than once but spelled differently. Open the newly pasted CUSTOM.DIC file in NOTEPAD not WORDPAD, edit as needed, closing all open lines when a word is removed. When finished click on file save, (NOT save as). If you have found errors in this copy, then you may want to copy your copy and replace the original file that resides in the MSOffice directory.

Windows 2000 in-place upgrade

function loadTOCNode(){}

Article ID	:	292175
Last Review	:	November 1, 2006
Revision	:	5.2

This article was previously published under Q292175

SUMMARY

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This article describes how to use the Windows 2000 Professional Setup CD-ROM to perform an in-place upgrade over the existing installation, if you have first performed the emergency repair process and the computer still does not operate normally.

MORE INFORMATION

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This procedure is a last resort before reinstalling the operating system. Note that the time required to complete the following procedure is equal to the time that it takes to reinstall the operating system.

To perform an in-place upgrade of Windows 2000, follow these steps:

1.	Insert the Windows 2000 Setup CD into the CD-ROM drive, start the computer, and then press a key to start from the CD-ROM.
2.	On the Windows 2000 Setup screen, press ENTER to run the To set up Windows 2000 now, press Enter command.
3.	Press the F8 key to accept the License Agreement.
4.	Setup should now detect your installation. Note If the Setup program does not detect a previous installation but just continues to the partitioning screen, there is a problem. An in-place upgrade may not be possible.
5.	When you are prompted to repair the existing Windows 2000 installation, press R. Windows 2000 Setup performs an in-place upgrade of the existing installation. Note that you might lose some of your customized settings for the system files.

For more information about the repair processes, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

306952 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306952/) What an in-place Windows 2000 upgrade changes and what it does not change

238359 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/238359/) Differences between manual and fast repair in Windows

816579 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816579/) How to perform an in-place upgrade of Windows Server 2003

Stop a program from running when Windows starts

* A program can be started automatically at bootup if a shortcut to the program is in your Startup folder (which is inside of your Start Menu folder).
* Older programs might still install themselves in your WIN.INI file (on the same line that starts with “LOAD=”). Use Notepad to edit this file.
* Some drivers can also display errant messages, and are loaded from your Registry (do a search to find them) and in your SYSTEM.INI file (use Notepad to edit this file).
* Also, programs may specified in your Registry, in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Run.
* Programs notorious for putting things in these places include backup utilities that automatically load their useless scheduler programs, and the software that comes with older versions of Micrsoft mice and keyboards.

Intended For: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 200x, Windows Me, Windows 9x

Open Source

The definition according to the Open Software Initiative is “Software where the source code (the language in which the program is written) is freely distributed with the right to modify the code, and on the condition redistribution is not restricted, and is obtainable for no more than the reasonable cost of reproduction.” As opposed to proprietary software that provides you with executable binary code only, not the human readable source code it is derived from.
Source Forge

also see: Open Source and The Free Software Foundation Apple Open Source

Index.dat file – What is Index.dat file?

Index.dat are files hidden on your computer that contain all of the Web sites that you have ever visited.  Every URL, and every Web page is listed there.  Not only that but all of the email that has been sent or received through Outlook or Outlook Express is also being logged.

The file names and locations depend on what version of Internet Explorer you have.  If you are running IE version 4.0 or above, the file name is “index.dat”.   Microsoft has not supplied an adequate explanation as to what these files are for or why they have been hidden so well.

According to Microsoft, these files are used to cache visited Web sites to help speed up the loading of Web pages in Internet Explorer.  Obviously this cannot be the case because when you clear the Temporary Internet Files the “index.dat” files remain behind and continue to grow.  If you delete or clear the Temporary Internet Files, there is absolutely no need to index the URL cache because those files no longer exist.

On a Windows 9x computer these files are located in the following locations:
\WINDOWS\Cookies\index.dat
\WINDOWS\History\index.dat
\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\index.dat
\WINDOWS\Cookies\index.dat
\WINDOWS\History\index.dat
\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\index.dat

In Windows 2000 and Windows XP there are several “index.dat” files in these locations:

\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Cookies\index.dat

\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\index.dat

\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\MSHist012001123120020101\index.dat
\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Local
Settings\History\History.IE5\MSHist012002010720020114\index.dat

\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Local Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat

Windows Drivers

Drivers and firmware downloads. If you need a driver, you may find it here:
DriversGuide.com
You’ll have to sign up for an account.
Doug W.