Computing desk
< April 12	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	April 14 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 13

Deleting spyware shit

Yes, I cussed! I am very irritated. I do not know where this came from, but recently, whenever I would start my computer up and get my desktop, a window would pop up asking me to buy something called "windowblinds". I looked in Add/Remove programs and it is not in there. I looked in program files, and noticed a folder called "stardock" that was not previously present. I tried deleting it, but I get "Cannot delete tray.dll: Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use." There are also 3 other files in there, named consecutively, "wbhelp.dll", "wblind.dll", "WbSrv.dll".

Also another spyware issue. There is a nuisance called "clock guard". (I have alt+tab vista power-toy installed)

[1]

Not to mention upon startup, adding to the windowblind thing, it has a pop-up of it's own stating "Your free 30-day trial of Clock Guard has expired. The protection offered by the program will no longer be active until you register" (or something like that). I have looked in control panel, program files, and etc. and I cannot find it anyware. Not even a system search for "Clock Guard" or "Clockguard" finds anything. It only appears in the alt+tab function. Help appreciated! --TV-VCR watch 05:29, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Tell us what anti-spyware/anti-malware programs you are running now, like AdAware and Spybot - Search & Destroy. StuRat 07:13, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Also, what anti-virus? Is it up to date? - Akamad 11:17, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I use a combination of these freeware programs: Ad-Aware SE Personal, SUPERAntiSpyware Free Home Edition, AVG Anti-Spyware, and Spybot - Search & Destroy. I have provided links to highly convenient locations to download these programs, without directly linking to the .EXE files themselves. − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 12:38, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I don't believe that either of these items is actually malware. Both seem to be shareware, from what I can tell. WindowBlinds is produced by a company called Stardock. It can be purchased separately or as part of a package called Object Desktop, so you might want to look for entries in the Add/Remove list under either Stardock or Object Desktop. There is also a forum link available on the Stardock website, you might be able to find help on uninstalling it there.

Clock Guard also seems to be legitimate shareware from an outfit called Leithauser Research. The information on that page says "Remember that complete instructions are provided for uninstalling Clock Guard if you decide that you do not like it" but if you don't know where or how it was installed, I guess those instructions can't be found either. The installation program appears to be called cgarc.exe, so you might want to search for file or folder names similar to that. There is also a link on that web page to email the author. --LarryMac 12:53, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Buy a Mac! :) Not to be flip, but no viruses, no malware, no spyware! It's wonderful. Think of the programs you use the most, there's a 97% chance there's a Mac equivalent. --24.249.108.133 17:27, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have run WinXP for 5 years without an anti virus program and have had only one instance of spyware and no worms/Trojans/viruses. I run a check occasionally (online scans and AV based off PE disk)to see if I am infected, nothing. My system runs beautifully. Boots real quick, less than a minute. You don't need a Mac or anti virus to run a good system, just don't install every piece of junk you encounter on the net, don't open every crap attachment people send you (even if it is from your friends, they are infected to) and stay away from unethical websites, eg porn & 'free' music, greeting cards, warez, serials, etc. Oh and keep your operating system up to date Glover 01:49, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The trouble with just deleting the directory of an installed program is that this doesn't always uninstsll the program - the program may have put its paws into your windows registry, put addons for internet explorer, and changed or added files in your system folder. That is what the whole Windows Installer thing is all about - when programs are installed, all the changes that it makes for the install are recorded so that during uninstall the process can be reversed. Nonetheless there are occasions where trying to delete the problem program from its folder is an option - but only really as a last resort.
I would really recommend in your case that you get a spyware removal tool - much like the ones Twas Now recommended.
Regardless, here is something you can try: Go into Internet Explorer, and click Tools -> Manage Addons -> Enable or Disable Addons (Note: This varies from version to version of internet explorer, the aforementioned instructions are for 7.0, but for previous versions you'd just have to look around for the equivalent section in your Options. Anyways, look at the addons that are listed, and look at their publishers. For all the suspicious ones, disable them. Obviously if the publishers are ones you trust you don't have to disable them - ones like Microsoft, Adobe, etc. By disabling certain addons, you would impede this spyware's ability to use internet explorer - but this may be only targetted at things that happen when inernet explorer is actually open. Rfwoolf 18:21, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ahoy!

We have a Samba server managing all the shares in our network. Now there is a share called DATA where the users throw in transfer-stuff, and data that should be usually read- and writable by everyone who has access to the DATA share. In that particular share there is a subfolder. And that subfolder should now be made read- and writable only by a select few from all the users able to see DATA. I have already made another share PRIVATE, and it shows up as another share similar to DATA in the windows network explorer, BUT the problem is, when going into the DATA share, the folder PRIVATE is still showing up there and everyone is able to access it, although only the select few specified are able to access the real PRIVATE share. Is there any option available for the smb.conf file so that I do not have to transfer the PRIVATE folder away from the DATA folder but still the two will have different permissions?

The relevant entries in my smb.conf file look like this:

       [DATA]
       comment = Data
       path = (...)
       read only = No
       create mask = 0640
       force create mode = 0640
       directory mask = 0750
       force directory mode = 0750
       inherit acls = Yes

       [PRIVATE]
       comment = Private folder
       path = (...)/private
       create mask = 0770
       force create mode = 0770
       directory mask = 0770
       force directory mode = 0770
       read only = No
       writable = Yes
       public = No
       valid users = aaa bbb ccc ddd
       inherit acls = No

If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated because moving the PRIVATE folder out of the DATA folder is not really an option, sadly. Aetherfukz 11:26, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ahoy there! I don't think you need to make any changes to your Samba configuration for this. Why not create a new Linux group containing just the users that you want to have access to the private folder? Then just do chgrp private_group private/; chmod o-rwx private/; chmod g+rwx. Johnnykimble 17:28, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Cool, thanks a lot! Aetherfukz 08:54, 17 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I just tried out your solution, but unfortunately the private directory is still accessable by anyone in the windows network neighborhood. Maybe the problem is that samba does all the sharing-business in our system and therefore ignores the linux permissions? Aetherfukz 10:54, 17 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

MS Windows Multi-Monitor API

How can I programmatically find the dimensions and coordinates of all monitors connected to a Microsoft Windows computer? I've done a bunch of searching on the web without success, including at multi monitor. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the right search terms to give me technical, rather than user, information. Matchups 13:05, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't had experience of this myself, but you might want to check out the documentation on the multiple monitors in the Windows GDI documentation on MSDN. Positioning Objects on a Multiple Display Setup might also be useful for you to have a look at. multimon.h in the Platform SDK also looks like a file you'll need to include. Johnnykimble 16:10, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Matchups 00:10, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

System forced shutdown

I have recently downloaded a driver for my USB mouse, but as soon as the installation process is completed, the screen suddenly turns blue with a lot of words. I only have time to read the first few lines abou the error message which is "Windows has to shut down due to a hardware change......." My laptop is operating on Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition and is bought around 2001 to 2002. Must I perform a system recovery? Has my laptop been infected with a virus? Note that my mouse is manufactured by LapMate. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Invisiblebug590 (talk • contribs) 13:48, 13 April 2007 (UTC).[reply]

That just sounds like a normal part of the install process to me, although they typically ask if you want to shut down to finish the install, rather than forcing it immediately. That is a bit rude. StuRat 13:58, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like the blue screen of death. You shouldn't really need to install a driver for your USB mouse, so trying uninstalling the driver, and just plugging the mouse in without it and see if it's detected. Johnnykimble 14:03, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, if you have time, try and note down the hex number (starting 0x...) next to the word STOP near the bottom. This should identify exactly what the problem is. Johnnykimble 14:04, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It does sound like the blue screen of death (see link above), and you have not said if you're able to get back into Windows or not, and by "System Recovery" do you mean "System restore"? Anyways, one thing that may help you is this: to stop windows from shutting down, click start -> run, and type "shutdown /a" (/a = abort). The trouble is that because it's an "Abort" you usually have to type that when Windows is in the process of trying to shut down - which means you have to be quick. What I do when I need to use it, is run it once or twice by itself, and then a moment before the forced shutdown I do it again, and once again during the shutdown. Now all that will do is temporarily stop windows from shutting down everything and shutting down. I've used this in one case where a virus was forcing Windows to shut down all the time - which prevented you from uninstalling the virus or finding a solution - but yours seems to just be a hardware issue.
A system restore would help if you're having trouble getting into windows again since the bad install you did - but you can also try going into control panel and saying "remove hardware" and seeing if you can uninstall it. Otherwise if Windows isn't working so good do a system restore. Then I want you to check if there's any updates for Windows - and download and install any necessary ones. Finally you should check on the net for the manufacturer to see if they've released a new driver for the mouse.
Note that if it's a USB mouse there's a strong chance that all you need to do is just plug it in and wait a moment, and then start using it. Good luck Rfwoolf 18:10, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

tl;dr! JoshHolloway 22:32, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Monitor problem

A couple times yesterday my monitor went blank, then came back up immediately. Later that day, the computer (Windows 98) locked up hard (not even the Task Manager would come up) and needed a reboot. I'm thinking this sounds like a rather serious problem, possibly with the display driver or hardware. Any ideas what the problem might be or how to fix it ? (I've checked the display cable connections at both ends, they both look good. I also don't think it was a power outage, as the TV was on and unaffected, although I suppose it might have a capacitor that allows it to survive extremely short power outages.) StuRat 14:07, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'd also be inclined to point to the display hardware in this case. I suspect that it is an overheating problem (now damaged beyond repair). You could try checking the graphics card fan to make sure it's spinning steadily and fast enough (i.e. it's not varying in speed). If you happen to have an old graphics card, you could try it instead. I've been unfortunate enough to have bought 2 faulty graphics cards, each exhibiting an overheating problem (although they were within warranty so I did get replacements). It can manifest itself in different ways but the problems you mention occurred on both occasions. If you happen to be gaming with a graphics card that has been damaged by overheating, you might also see texture colours mess up (no idea why this is). Sorry I couldn't be more specific but my inclination is a damaged graphics card... Johnnykimble 16:01, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

OK, thanks, I'll watch for that. The computer had been running for a good long time each time this happened, so heat might indeed be an issue. The problem hasn't recurred today, however. Was your problem intermittent like that ? Also, what are "texture colours" ? StuRat 18:49, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

My problems occurred when playing 3D games mainly. So, if I played a game I could be sure of a crash after a while, so not really intermittent as such. I did experience the desktop crashes you mentioned, as well as the monitor losing signal. That seemed intermittent, but I suspect was as a result of a high ambient temperature inside the case, which was enough to cause the graphics card to fail. As for the texture colours, it's difficult to describe. When the problem was occurring during a game, I would see reds, greens and blues in place of proper colours. For example, when faced with a brown brick wall, the wall would appear with patches of red, green and blue on it. It sounds quite odd, but it's a sure sign of a graphics card that has been damaged due to overheating. This effect will probably vary between cards, but have a look at this screenshot and you might get a better idea of what I mean.

If it is an old PC, it may well be worthwhile opening the case and taking a vacuum to it. A bed of dust on a heatsink can often be the cause of overheating components. Also, if you have any software installed that detects CPU temperature and/or motherboard/ambient temperature take a note of those. Ambient\case temperature will hopefully be in the 30s (Celsius) and the CPU temperature no higher than 65. You may also have a sensor on the graphics card if it's fairly new. To read this, the drivers should provide a utility - usually somewhere in the 'Display properties'. Johnnykimble 19:43, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I see, all those purple streaks, right ? It is a fairly old computer, so I'll see if I can get rid of some dust. Thanks again ! StuRat 00:18, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No, no! Don't use a vacuum cleaner unles s it is specifically designed for cmputer components. Normal vacuums are quite efficient static electricity generators that can kill compuuter components. Use a can of compressed air, available at any computer store or office supply store. ~Crazytales 12:14, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

AI and reference librarianship

As Artifical Intelligence programming becomes more sophisticated, can I expect to be out of a job as a reference librarian in the next 10 years? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 141.211.8.13 (talk) 17:15, 13 April 2007 (UTC).[reply]

As much as i love AI i don't think you'll be out of a job. The reason for this is because there is always room for error, and besides it's just more comfortable talking to a live person than a machine. I think in any case this will make your job easier, for you will only have to supervise the program and make sure it doesn't commit errors, or fix them. if a machine makes an error it will not call the customer back and be able to say where it messed up, but a human on the other hand can. You'll be more like a Commander or Sub-Commander in the game Supreme Commander xD 200.12.231.42 18:12, 13 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech[reply]

Speaking of Supreme Commander, going by the AI in this (or any other RTS for that matter), I wouldn't worry about AI's being able to compete with you in 30 years let alone 10. The bigger issue is probably not AI per se, but the power of searching, database mining etc. While these use a basic level of AI, the bigger issue is that they will make it a lot easier for people to find out things themselves. Nil Einne 18:42, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think A.I. is as much as threat as telecommunications and regional/national disparities in compensation. Low cost workers in China/India/etc. can probably answer 90% of reference questions at like one percent of your price, so it stands to reason a few video conference computers in the library is the larger threat. In both 2001: A Space Odyssey, and BART, A.I. was thought to be a panacea and later a threat—and that was in the 1960s. Sadly, A.I. capability has grown disappointingly slowly, with little reason to suspect a sudden jump forward. —EncMstr 17:53, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Don't forget the flying cars. The flying cars are still just around the corner like they always have been Nil Einne 18:42, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Entry for Invicta Networks?

I saw the excellent movie, "Breach" last night. Chris Cooper's character spoke of using Invicta protocols for a new computer system. A Google search revealed this is an actual technology, but Wikipedia has no entry about this supposedly "unhackable" network. And the company's website seems to be down. Does anyone have any other info about it? --24.249.108.133 17:18, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I found a few articles on it and I'll write a stub at Invicta Networks. Recury 20:41, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Your entry seems to have disappeared! --Navstar 04:49, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Here's a (very) little information on their technology. It's basically just spread spectrum for IP networks. You might also be interested in quantum cryptography for a real unhackable network. --TotoBaggins 20:42, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

OS Choice Question

I am somewhat confused, what with the variety of OSes at large today. Someone reading this would say I've never even bothered to read the Wikipedia Articles on Linux, FreeBSD and such, but I have. I've even installed Ubuntu Linux Dapper Drake (KDE patched, not Kubuntu) and played around with it for a while. One thing I can say about it is that it is certainly a whole lot better than XP / Vista and such (I could go on and on about *cough* Vista *cough*, but...). But in some (few) aspects, XP still leads. Make a long story short, I wonder if someone could give me an overview of a few popular OSes. I'm particularly looking for native .exe support and NTFS support (Read-only or even RW). It should essentially be exactly like Windows, just with the bad bits filtered out (i.e. no IE, no frequent crashing, less emphasis on looks and more on performance, etc.) Since this is what a lot of people would want, I figure something must exist to represent it. There may be legal issues, but I'm no expert. The reason I want it is simple. I would like to abandon Windows, yet I'd hate losing support for all Windows-only applications (some of them games) for which there is no open-source/freeware counterpart or alternative. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Danielsavoiu 17:19, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

ReactOS is most likely going to fulfill your needs, but it's not feature complete and is still considered an alpha release. --LarryMac 17:34, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you want Windows without getting Windows, get Linspire. Unlike other forms of Linux that try to do Linux well, Linspire's goal is to Windows well in a Linux environment. Of course, they get sued for saying that (which is why they changed the name from Lindows to Linspire) - but that is what it is. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:59, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Dual booting or VMWare are both good options for mostly working in an alternative OS, but going back to Windows when necessary. Most of the things people want from a personal computer can be done fairly well in Linux now (video games being a big exception). A Macintosh might also be a good alternative. I personally have used only Linux at work and at home since 1998 or so, and the things I can't do on Linux I just do without. When I'm obliged to use other people's Windows machines I'm always shocked at how horrible it is, with the constant popups and things demanding your attention. --TotoBaggins 20:51, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If Windows can't be 100% compatible with itself why do you expect something like wine will? Just see the recent Vista release and how much hysteria on compatibility it had stirred up. RW NTFS support is already present as ntfs-3g and is available in most major distributions, and native .exe support, what does native mean? Native as in it can execute .exe files, or native as in it looks and feel and behaves like Windows and basically a Windows clone? I sure hope Linux will never be like Windows, with all its stupid things (eg. autorun on system harddrives, what's the point in that except to spread virus?). Also, would you list all the applications and games that you would like to run in Linux that you think there is no open-source counterpart? --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:02, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not advocating Windows or anything, but I run XP and I don't get all the things like constant popups and things demanding attention. It just depends on how knowledgeable the user is at setting all the little settings. Although, random driver crashing and random stop errors are annoying. But I guess it won't matter if XP ever gets phased out, because that's when I plan to run FreeBSD primarily. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 23:12, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like a proverbial "have cake, eat cake" situation. You're basically saying that you want Windows but you want it to be better. I'm sorry to point out that Microsoft makes the best Win32 implementation, and any other projects attempting to duplicate their work are incomplete and years behind at best. Wine is great, but the app compatibility isn't nearly there, likewise with ReactOS. I'm afraid you're just going to have to live with Windows for now. In all honesty, I don't think Win2k/WinXP/Server2k3 are any worse than a typical *nix (horrible interface aside) on usability grounds as long as you avoid installing a lot of crapware. -- mattb @-14T00:10Z

Thanks a lot for your answers, they helped a lot. A few answers to your questions:

By native .exe support I mean being able to double-click on an .exe and running the program, without going through the command-line wine thing... I have nothing against wine, but it isn't all that compatible and most .exes crash wih wine.
By apps without Linux support I mean video games mostly.
I agree with Wirbelwind, It's just a matter of tweaking Windows to do your bidding, which I have done and still do. But it works slower than it should, and Speed-up programs just make it even slower...

Thanks again, Danielsavoiu 11:53, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

? Wine is the only support of windows exes I know about (except of course the virtualization options like VMware which still require some copy of Windows). IIRC even wine runs better with windows dlls. You could probably configure your windows manager to execute windows executables under wine when double clicked. But then I'll admit to not running Linux much the past couple of years so I'm not so much in-the-know as I used to be. Root⁴(one) 03:15, 15 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Double-clicking .exe files to run it is already possible with Linux, just set it to open it with wine and you're all set. You can sidestep the whole terminal thing if you just create a link on your desktop, like what I do with Warcraft III; Just copy and paste the command you need to play it (in my case, wine "C:\Program Files\Warcraft III\war3.exe" -opengl), slap on a nice pretty icon and voilà. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:43, 15 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

digital preservation programs at US businesses and organizations

Which US organizations and businesses have digital preservation policies or digital preservation programs? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.41.59.243 (talk) 20:08, 13 April 2007 (UTC).[reply]

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act obliges *all* large public companies to follow certain digital preservation guidelines in some financial areas. --TotoBaggins 20:55, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

SDRAM question

I bought a Sony Vaio desktop computer with an AMD Athlon 1 Ghz processor back in 2001 and gave it an extra 256 SD RAM chip. My computer smart friend tells me that two can slow a computer down because the processes have to work through both of them. He also told me about the newer 1 gig chips they have now. Would my computer be able to handle it since it is so old? It has a (post purchase) 250 gig harddrive. Would that make a difference?(Ghostexorcist 00:21, 14 April 2007 (UTC))[reply]

Memory is not searched chip by chip. It is accessed immediately by memory address. If an address is on the first chip, the computer goes to the first chip. If the address is on the second chip, it goes to the second chip. It does not search through the first chip and then decide to meander over to the second chip for a sneak and peek. In fact, a good memory controller can have one chip saving some data while another one is preparing to read some data. That is rarely done to my knowledge because memory is so fast already. But, it is possible.

As for "can my computer handle it" - what is the model number on your Vaio? There are so many types of Vaios that it is not possible to answer this question with just the year of purchase. --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:07, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You won't slow a computer down with multiple RAM chips. You can actually increase it with Intel based systems using dual-channel architecture, although that's not really common before 2003, so your harddrive probably doesn't have it. In short, no, it shouldn't slow it down, since your RAM is timed anyways at probably around 8ns or so, and even if adding a chip adds a tiny bit of propagation delay, it's still read at the same frequency, so no, it won't have any effect on your end. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 06:08, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Note: It's not an Intel based system anyway. (: 70.88.111.65 12:18, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The model number is PCV-RX450 (Ghostexorcist 10:16, 14 April 2007 (UTC))[reply]

That model appears not to be compatible with 1GB RAM modules. This site claims the memory is 'expandable to 512mb'. If you have a single 128mb module (that came with it), plus another 256mb module (that you added), then, if there are 3 slots, you will be limited to buying another 128mb module (thus fulfilling the quota of 512mb). If you only have 2 slots, then the best you could do is to get rid of your 128mb module, and replace it with a 256mb module. Just make sure it's PC133 or 133MHz. Johnnykimble 11:46, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

On further investigation, it seems there are only 2 slots on that machine. This means your only upgrade option is to buy a new 256mb module, and ditch the 128mb module you got with the machine. Johnnykimble 11:48, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]