Ran into a curious symptom, one that really threw us for on a wild goose chase before arriving at a very simple solution.

The symptom: When the user opens PowerPoint attachments from their Outlook Express Inbox, the attachments frequently (but not always) freeze, and lock up the computer. The only way to restore normal use of the computer is to CTL + ALT + DEL to get to the task manager, and choose “End Process” on Microsoft PowerPoint. The symptom was much harder to troubleshoot because the problem was very inconsistent and difficult to replicate. Many attachments opened just fine, but some PowerPoint attachments would freeze. Even the same attachment wouldn’t ALWAYS freeze every time. Weird!

So, faced with this dilema, our first thought was that PowerPoint was somehow corrupt, or that the AVG antivirus email scanner was somehow corrupting the attachments as they came down. We also felt Outlook Express itself could be the culprit. So we tried the following fixes:

1. Download any / all Windows updates and Office updates. Didn’t fix the problem.
2. Uninstalled AVG Antivirus. Some attachments would still freeze. To test, we emailed fresh new PowerPoint attachments, and a couple of them still froze. The problem was not AVG. But we left it uninstalled while we continued to troubleshoot.
3. We did a “Repair” on Microsoft Office 2003, by going to “Add / Remove Programs” in the Control Panel, and selecting “Microsoft Office 2003″ and choosing “Change” and then performing a “Reinstall / Repair”.
4. From there we found our answer on Google, and we MUST give credit to an excellent article available here:
   An Outlook Express basic repair kit. Here’s the answer, quite simple actually!

Empty your Temporary Internet Files!

Here’s why and how…

• Why: Internet Explorer and Outlook Express are very closely intertwined. In fact, Outlook Express uses the same folder that Internet Explorer does to keep temporary files. When you open an attachment in Outlook Express you are using the same “Temporary Internet Files” folder that Internet Express uses. There is no harm in deleting these files (in fact many would consider it a good house keeping best practise).
• How: Open up Internet Explorer. Click “Tools” –> “Internet Options” and under the “General” tab, choose the “Delete” button in the middle of the window. Choose “Delete Temporary Internet Files” and then click “OK”. Be patient, this could take awhile depending on just how many temporary files you have to delete. In our case we waited TWENTY WHOLE MINUTES for this operation to complete!!

In the end, our patience was rewarded. It fixed the issue. We went back and installed AVG Free Antivirus, and then opened as many PowerPoint attachments as possible. They all worked perfectly.

Thanks to Tom Koch’s article! Don’t forget to always Google your symptoms, the answers are always out there!

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So you just upgraded to Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), and now it crashes. You’re not alone.

IE8 may crash when you open it, while you’re using it, or when you close it. The most common symptom is the classic Windows message “Internet Explorer has experienced a problem and needs to close”. If you experience infrequent or consistent crashing in Internet Explorer 8, check your add-ins!

Open Internet Explorer 8, click on “Tools” then “Manage Add Ons” to see what Add-Ins are currently installed.

Internet Explorer 8 Add Ons Manager

Note that each Add-On has a “Status” of “Enabled” or “Disabled”. When you click on an Add-On, you have the option at the lower right corner to disable an Add-On or enable one if it’s currently disabled.

One way to quickly tell if an Add-On is causing Internet Explorer 8 to crash is to disable ALL of your Add-Ons, then close IE8 and re-open it. If the crashing goes away, then there is an Add-On that was causing your problems.

If so, you can enable each Add-On, one by one, making SURE TO CLOSE IE8 and then REOPEN IT AFTER EACH AND EVERY ADD-ON YOU ENABLE!! This is KEY!!

Some Add-Ons that we’ve already seen that cause IE8 to crash:

• myway.com
• Sonic Drive Letter Access
• Certain HP printer Add-Ons

If you feel you NEED this Add-On then do a Google search for the name of your Add-On + Internet Explorer 8 and see if there’s an updated Add-On available for you shiny new browser!

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With all the hub bub surrounding the April 1st “conficker” virus, and also the recent uptick in severe virus / trojan / spyware attacks, we thought it was a good time to review our favorite free antivirus / virus removal tools.

While they all aim to do essentially the same thing: prevent or remove malicious software, each of these can serve a slightly different purpose, and each seem to be a little better at removing certain types of infections than the others. Two things they have in common: they’re all great at what they do and they’re all free!

So here, then, are our top ten free antivirus / virus removal tools, click the name for a link to the software:

1. Malwarebytes This is the current crown holder for “best all around virus / trojan / spyware removal”. Hands down, it’s the first tool we reach for when we are asked to fix a computer that is already infected. We’ve only had a couple of cases where Malwarebytes couldn’t do the trick. Download it, update it, then run a “complete scan”. You may have to run a scan in “Safe Mode” for complete removal. If you find viruses, reboot to clean them and then run ANOTHER scan to make sure they’re 100% removed.
2. SuperAntiSpyware Another great all around removal tool, just like Malwarebytes above. We often use SuperAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes as a great “One Two Punch” against viruses and trojans. Same rules as with Malwarebytes: Download, Install, Upate the definitions, perform the scan. You may need to run it in Safe Mode for complete removal.
3. Combofix In rare cases where the above two tools can’t do the job, this one has. In particular to solve a weird case of Google Browser Redirection, it was Combofix that found and removed the malicious software. For instructions on using Combofix click here.
4. AVG Free Antivirus A great, and free, resident antivirus program, comparable to Norton or McAfee… except we feel AVG runs on less resources (requiring less memory and CPU, keeping your computer running faster), and is better at actually stopping viruses. No antivirus is a 100% perfect security tool, but AVG is pretty darned good, and you can’t beat the price.
5. Avast Free Antivirus Another great free antivirus program like AVG above. We particularly like two things about Avast: First, of all the antivirus software we’ve tested (free or otherwise) Avast runs on the least memory and CPU, making it PERFECT for older computers with around 256mb to 512mb of RAM. Second, it has a great “boot time” scanner that sometimes catches viruses that others miss.
6. Hijack This! For many tech people this tool is considered an old stand by. There are many discussion forums out there filled with analysis of your Hijack This! results. For advanced users only, this tool is much different than any other on the list, in that it doesn’t NECESSARILY identify malicious software. It identifies CHANGES (good, bad, otherwise) to your system, particularly related to your web browser. Some changes might be valuable to you, like the Yahoo! toolbar. Other changes could be the result of a trojan or spyware. Don’t just run Hijack This! and then remove all the things it finds!! You could remove stuff you like. Use with caution
7. Spybot Search and Destroy Another techie favorite and old standby. This has a great removal tool as well as a resident listener for new problems. We’ve been using this less and less over the last few years, as we are favoring Malwarebytes more and more heavily. However this is always a good tool to have in your arsenal.
8. CCleaner “Guys! Cover your tracks!” well, that’s just one handy use for this tool that removes all traces of where you’ve been on your computer. It’s the best free “privacy” tool we know. It also has a built in Registry cleaner (again… FREE, don’t pay $29.95 for some scam site to clean your registry for you!) and system optimizer. Why then do we include this on our Virus Removal list? Well, it’s a stretch we know, but the more information a spyware program can find about you, the more vulnerable you are. This sofware removes a lot of that info from the nooks and crannies of your PC. And it covers your tracks…
9. Vundofix One of the most widespread, and nasty and hard to remove viruses for awhile there was the Vundo virus. This tool is specifically made to remove that ONE virus and all it’s variants. Best used in Safe Mode.
10. Trojan Remover Ok, this last one, while it is highly effective at removing Trojans, is not as *FREE* as the other tools on this list. It IS free for 30 days. It is fully functional for 30 days, not like some free trials where the software will scan your system and then tell you what it finds and offer to remove it all for a fee. This software WILL remove the trojans in the first 30 days. If you really like it, buy it. It’s $30 and you own it forever, still practically a steal!!

If you have a free tool that has been effective for you, leave us a comment!

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Found a virus today that made it past AVG, Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, as well as our Sonicwall perimeter antivirus.

We noticed that our Google searches were intermittently being redirected to advertising websites by way of IP Address 209.85.171.19. Our other symptoms… AVG, Malwarebytes, and Superantispyware were all running at the time, and could no longer reach their update servers for new virus definitions. Obviously this was a virus.

We tried removing and reinstalling each of the antivirus programs previously mentioned. Still couldn’t update. Tried using Avast antivirus, still nothing. Tried running everything in Safe Mode, and we tried using Hijack This!

Nothing could find the problem. Finally, we found the tool that worked: Combofix.

Thanks to Bleepingcomputer.com for the help! You can download combofix by clicking this link.

You can also view a tutorial on using combofix from their website here.

Combofix found found a dll and a tmp file and removed them. Problem immediately went away. Our security tools could now update from their servers, and our Google searches work normally again.

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There are many discussion forums and knowledge bases out there discussing the common Microsoft Office error, where when you start an Office 2003 application like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc, you receive an error message “Microsoft Office Word has not been installed for the current user. Please
run setup to install the application.”

We ran into one today. In this case none of the usual recommendations would work. We tried:

1. Add/remove programs, click “change” and perform a “repair” on Microsoft Office 2003. Didn’t work.

2. Tried performing a complete uninstall / reinstall of the Office software, including manually removing all Office folders and registry entries left behind after the uninstall. We removed everything, and then reinstalled and the error still came up.

3. We followed the Microsoft knowledge base article, and browsed to this path:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Data\

and attempted to change the permissions on the files inside. Problem: we’re using Windows XP Home, and there’s no security tab to change permissions. We also tried deleting the contents then re-opening the applications to have them re-created. Still found the same error.

4. Per another forum, we tried going into the registry, and gave “everyone” full control permissions to the “Office” software entries under both HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Still got the same error.

FINALLY, found the answer buried in a few Google searches. This is what finally fixed it…

1. Go to the Control Panel, and open the “Users” control. Create a new user called “Temp” and make sure it’s an administrator.
2. Log off of the current user, then log in as “Temp”.
3. While logged in as “Temp”, open every Microsoft Office application, one at a time, and close it: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Outlook, etc.
4. Once you’ve opened and closed each app, open the Registry: Click “Start” then “Run”, type “regedit” in the run box and hit enter, or click “Ok”.
5. With the Registry open, use the plus signs at the left to browse to the following location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER –> Software –> Microsoft –> Office

6. Click on the “Office” folder and choose “Export” from the file menu at the top. Save the exported registry entry to the C: drive and call it “office”. (more below)


Use the registry to Export the Office keys

7. Now, log off of the “Temp” user, and log back in as the user with the problem opening the Office apps.
8. Open the registry using the instructions from above, and choose “File” –> “Import”, and browse to the registry file you created previously, “C:\office”
9. Once you see the message “Registry keys imported successfully” you’ll be able to open all the Office applications normally again!

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We’ve seen many instances of “MSAntiSpyware 2009″, “MSAntivirus 2009″, and “WinAntivirus 2009″ on our clients’ computers. These are, of course, malicious in nature, and very difficult to remove.

Normally, we use a one-two punch of Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware. Install each one, and then run a “Complete Scan” from each, alternating between Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware. We sometimes find that we have to run each scan multiple times to completely remove the malicious software.

We also recommend that you disable your “System Restore”. To disable it, click “Start” then right-click on “My Computer” and choose “Properties”, then click the “System Restore” tab. When you turn off the System Restore, you’ll be deleting all of your previous restore points. This is necessary, as it is likely that these restore points are infected!!

A couple of times, we’ve found that even our one-two punch cannot fix the problem. Here’s why… sometimes the “MSAntiSpyware” software will write Registry entries and then completely strip the permissions from them. When this happens, Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware fail trying to remove the registry entries.

To fix this, open up the Registry by clicking Start –> Run, then type ‘regedt32′ and click ok.

Now click on “My Computer” at the top of the hierarchy, and then choose “Edit” –> “Find” from the file menu at the top of the screen. Type “crucialsoft” in the find box and click ok.

This will show you where the remaining registry entries are. Right click on these keys and choose “Permissions” and grant “Everyone” the “Full Control” permissions to that key and any subkeys. Continue to find any remaining “crucialsoft” registry keys, changing the permissions on each one.

You can then delete the keys manually if you feel confident enough to manually delete registry keys…. better yet, just re-run your Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware complete scans again. This time, with the permissions changed, the removal tools should have no trouble deleting the remaining Registry keys.

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Our customer had a Dell Dimension, Windows XP system that was running very very slow. Almost unusable. Closer inspection revealed that the “system” process is consuming 99% CPU.

We tried disabling the usual suspects: antivirus, backup software, firewall. Still nothing.

A few crafty Google searches revealed that high CPU usage by the “system” process can sometimes involve a hardware issue.

We downloaded and installed Process Explorer to better see the system process and their exact CPU usage. Task Manager is helpful for this, but for a complete look at your system resource usage, try Process Explorer.

Process explorer high dpc and hardware interrupts

Process explorer revealed a high level of hardware interrupts and DPCs (deferred procedure calls) further indicating a hardware problem.

Upon removal of the side of the case… wallah!!! The CPU fan isn’t spinning at all!! It’s really a wonder the computer booted up at all, let alone that it stayed on for hours at a time!! Talk about a fire hazard.

So the lack of CPU fan was probably causing the SYSTEM process to send hardware signals over and over and over, and they were piling up, and we could never see them.

We tried replacing the CPU fan with a generic fan, but it turns out that Dell uses a proprietary connection allowing the system to sense the CPU fan speed. So we had to order a replacement part through Dell.

Lesson learned. If the system process is using high CPU, try looking at your hardware!

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