Using HijackThis to remove malware

HijackThis, a hijacker detector and remover was originally created by Merijn Bellekom and then later sold off to Trend Micro. HijackThis is a very popular browser hijacker detector used by majority of security analysers to identify the possible malware infections on a computer.

The problem with today’s malware is that they are very difficult to detect due to the advanced protective mechanisms used by them. Because of this, even a thorough scan by the latest updated anti virus or an anti spyware/malware  may miss out on the latest variants of a particular malware. In such cases, to make sure even the last traces of the malware is weeded out, security analysts suggest using HijackThis logfile through which they can analyse the registry and other program settings on a computer and based on the log, they can pinpoint towards the malware entry (and thereby their removal too) with greater accuracy.

Facebook's virus spreading Email

I had earlier written an article on malicious emails being sent to Facebook users telling them that their password have been changed and that the new details are enclosed in the attachment. Any one then downloading the attachment will get infected with the malware present in it. You can read more about it here.

New password stealing virus targets Facebook

(Reuters) - Hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets Facebook's estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other sensitive information.

Top 500 worst Passwords of all time

These are the top 500 worst passwords you could possibly use. The following list is from Mark Burnett's 2005 book Perfect Passwords: Selection, Protection, Authentication, where he has compiled the most commonly used passwords by people all over the internet. Though the compiled list is now old, considering that it's the year 2010 now, a full five years on, this list still has got a lot of importance. Though the trend might have shifted a little, with internet users becoming more aware of all these security issues, but even today most people still use some of these passwords.

Making Windows Genuine using registry crack

In most of the client computers I attend to, I have seen that many are still using Windows XP and are either using pirated copies or have been duped by then software vendor by paying for pirated ones. The problem arises when Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage tool (WGA) declares that you are using counterfeit version of Windows and that you need to buy a genuine one. And then on you will be getting that ugly WGA pop up irritating the hell out of you, before blacking out everything for you(as in Windows Vista) and making it unusable.

Best Antivirus Software

Yes, the topic is about the best antivirus software available in market. Why? Definitely if one would know that there are thousands of new viruses and malwares being made everyday, he would be worried about the health of his computer and will try to get the best protection suite for it. But this is also true, that there is no such thing as 100% protection for a computer. Unless, of course, your computer is never connected to the internet or exposed to any kind of external media.

How to block a website

You may want to block a particular website on your computer. May be you do not want your brother or sister to visit a particular site, or you just do not want your room mate to keep orkuting all day and so you want the website blocked. No matter what the reason be, there are many ways to block a website. One can block a website from a browser, a software or within a computer itself.

Unlocker alternative for x64 Windows - LockHunter

In our earlier posts we have seen about deleting undeletable files using Unlocker and also about deleting undeletable files manually using command prompt. Doing it manually is actually a hectic job and using Unlocker is fast and a sure shot way. But the problem is that Unlocker is only for the 32 bit platform and more and more users these days are moving to the 64 bit version of Windows. Thus, for them, there's another nifty tool named LockHunter that comes in both 32 and 64 bit versions.

Deleting undeletable files manually using command prompt

In our earlier post, we have seen about deleting undeletable files using unlocker. That's a nifty tool for sure and is a must have for all computer users. But one friend of mine asked me if we could delete files manually without using any software. So just to share with those who don't know, I am putting up few lines on how to do it manually.

Deleting undeletable files using Unlocker

Many a time we have come across a situation where we try to remove/delete, move a file or a folder and we get this message.

Sometimes it just says 'Cannot delete file: access denied,' or may be 'Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use'. Most of the times it is true that the file mite be being used and that's why this warning can be a boon to some people. But it also happens that even though it is 'really' not being used anywhere, these kinds of messages pop up and hamper our computer activity.

Remove Antivirus 2009

NO! This is not any new antivirus product in the market, in fact it's a problem caused by one 'supposed to be antivirus' of the same name. A lot of people, mostly novice users, are facing this problem of Antivirus2008, Antivirus 2009, Antivirus 2009 PRO or even Antivirus 2010. They are all from similar family and just have different names. What happens, is that all of a sudden the user sees a pop up saying that the computer contains a number of viruses and they are risking their computers. When they try to click on the Clean button, it tells the user to buy the software and clean their system.
See some examples below.

 

Pop up blocking

Everyone of us has faced those often nasty new browser windows opening up automatically when surfing online at some point or the other. During the early days of the internet, surfing through the web was a peaceful journey. When the internet revolution really began, the marketing guys went online too. And guess what! Pop up adds became their nuke weapon.

Autorun problem !!

Well, this is a very common problem with many people. School or college students who share their pendrives or external storage media on public computers tend to gather a lot of viruses/worms from these machines. On using these pendrives or external storage media on their personal computers, they risk infecting them with these infections.

These days most of the viruses and other infections spread through a feature called 'autorun' present on the windows platforms that Microsoft has originally put for user's convenience.
This autorun thing works by putting a small file called autorun.inf onto the external media which can be configured to autostart a particular program as soon as the media is inserted into the computer.

Now, though this was meant to be an advantageous feature for windows users, virus makers have used this effectivelty to spread their warez by making their affected warez autorun and start executing as soon as one connects the device, sometimes without even the knowledge of the user.

So, ill tell you some of the best and shortest methods to stop this risky feature to run automatically :
1) Simplest thing would be to keep SHIFT key pressed when inserting the external media and until the media has been detected[can be checked by looking on My Computer window whether a new drive for the media has been connected].

2) For lazybones or people who keep forgetting to do the above procedure[like me :P], u can download the registry file given at the end of this post, double click it on select ok.

There are several third party softwares doing this work too but one should try and avoid them since faster options are available as mentioned above. In case people still need to know about them, I shall mention them in a later post.

Have a virus free world :)

Download the registry file by clicking the links below:
link 1