Autorun can be useful but it can be dangerous. Remember yesterday article about plugging in hacked U3 smart drive and your computer is automatically compromised within seconds? That is only possible if autorun is enabled. Other than a hacked U3 smart drive, a hacker can infect a computer with trojan using a CD. Just program autorun.inf to load the trojan whenever it’s being autoplayed.

Besides security issues, autorun can be frustrating too. Have you ever encountered that when you load a very old CD or damaged/scratched CD, it will keep on trying to read and process autorun.inf file? The Windows will just freeze and you can’t do anything until you manually eject the disc.

I remembered many years ago when I was using a 3rd party user login software on Windows 98. It can be bypassed by simply loading a CD that has autorun.inf. (Maybe I was using a lousy windows 98 login software) So no matter which version of Windows you’re using, it is always good to disable CD autoplay on Windows.


Unfortunately Windows doesn’t provide a simple way for you to enable or disable automatically running CD-ROMs. I will show you 2 ways, the manual and automatic way to disable autorun on Windows.

There’s a trick where you can stop autorun CD in Windows by pressing a key. Just press the SHIFT key and hold the key for a while when you load a CD.

This is also useful for U3 smart drives if you don’t want it to automatically run the U3 launchpad.

To MANUALLY and permanently enable or disable automatically running CD-ROMs, you must edit the registry:
1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
2. Locate and click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom
3. To disable automatically running CD-ROMs, change the Autorun value to 0 (zero). To enable automatically running CD-ROMs, change the Autorun value to 1.

4. Restart your computer.

If you don’t like to mess around with your Registry or don’t know how, use this easy tool called AutoPlayConfig to easily help you enable or disable Autoplay on Windows.

The program is free and easy to use. One click to check your Autoplay settings, another to Enable or Disable Autoplay.

[ Download AutoPlayConfig ]

Note: If you’d to re-enable CD autoplay but it doesn’t work, you might want to check two other registry keys that can affect this functionality. Make sure that both values is “0×00000095”
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Value: NoDriveTypeAutoRun = 0×00000095

HKU\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Value: NoDriveTypeAutoRun = 0×00000095

Checking what font that is being used on a website is pretty easy for web designers. However for users that only knows how to use the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web page builders, it won’t be easy. First you need to check the source code, then find out what DIV tags are being used and finally check the the cascading style sheets (CSS) file. The CSS file will reveal what fonts are being used and how large it is set to. An easier way to automatically find out what font that is being used on a website is by using Firefox’s add-on called Font Finder and Context Font.

After installing either add-on, simply use your mouse to highlight a text that you want to check for the font type and size, and right click. Context Font will show the font of selected text directly in the context menu itself. As for Font Finder, you will need to also highlight, right click and go to Font Finder and select Analyze selection. Font Finder is able to give more detailed information such as the font color, background color, line-height, vertical-align, letter-spacing, word-spacing, decoration and element. Trying to check what font and size is being used by Google Adsense requires a bit more work. Useful for webmaster that wants to blend the ads with the text used on their website.


Let’s take this website for an example. Both Font Finder and Context Font shows 12px verdana for this website but when you right click on the Adsense ads, it shows the same thing but weirdly it looks different, probably slightly bigger.

What you need to do is right click on Adsense advertisement, go to This Frame and select Open Frame in New Tab. A new tab will open showing only the Google advertisement and nothing else. If you see an image ad, you will need to refresh until you see the text advertisement. Now highlight the text that you want to check on the font and size, and both Font Finder and Context Font is able to tell you what font and size is being used.

Both Font Finder and Context Font add-on is compatible with Firefox 4.

Still remember the error code 80048820 that affected many people during MSN Messenger version 7.5? Apparently the problem was caused by the wrong date on my computer. Changing back the date fixed the problem. Today again I got a a very similar error code on my Windows Live Messenger which is 80048820 WITH an extended 80048439 or 8004840f error code.

At first I didn’t look carefully at the error code and thought that there might be a temporary problem on .NET Messenger Service. After an hour, I am still getting the same error code and this now I think the problem might be on my computer because Microsoft wouldn’t take that long to fix a service that millions of people are using.

I checked the date on my computer and it’s current. I checked .NET Messenger Service status and it says all systems are stable and running.

After a little checking, I found what is causing the error code 80048820 and extended error code 80048439.


If the .NET service is stable and running and the system date is correct, the problem should be either the messenger got corrupted or the connection problem. Uninstall and reinstall Windows Live Messenger still didn’t allow me to connect. It must be the connection problem. Windows Live Messenger uses Internet Explorer connection settings to connect. If you’ve set to use proxy on Internet Explorer, Windows Live Messenger will also use the same proxy on Internet Explorer.

Then I remembered earlier today I was using a USA proxy in Internet Explorer to do some test and I forgot to remove the settings. Usually an open proxy don’t stay online for very long. I uncheck to stop using the proxy and voila!, I am able to connect to Windows Live Messenger without getting the 80048820 error code with 80048439 or 8004840f extended error code.

To disable using proxy in Internet Explorer:

1. Click Tools from Internet Explorer menu bar

2. Select Internet Options

3. Go to Connections tab

4. Click on LAN settings button

5. Uncheck “Use a proxy server for your LAN”

Have you ever seen a font that is being used in an image that looks very nice and you wonder what font is that? Asking for people in graphics forums if they know what font is that is like looking for a needle in a haystack since there are probably tens of thousands or probably more! 4 years ago I posted an article on how to identify fonts being used in images using Identifont and WhatTheFont. Here is another addition to the online service called “What Font is” where it is able to identify unknown font and also finds an alternative if it couldn’t find the exact one.

I have given What Font is a try and it was able to identify what font that is used by Gary Simon when he was designing the Raymond.CC logo. The whole process took less than 3 minutes and all you need to do is either upload the image or specify the URL link to the image. You can then set whether to display only free fonts, commercial fonts or both and finally whether the background color is lighter or darker.


The next step is pretty important as you have to check every image and input the black character in the image. If you see incomplete black character, you can drag one image over another to combine the shapes. As for images that doesn’t look like a character, just leave the box empty. Finally click the Continue button for What Font is to process and identify the font. What Font is will display the first 100 fonts that look like the image you uploaded and if the results are wrong, you can post it to forums by clicking on the link that says “Wrong results? Post the image to forum!”

There is a limit of 1.8MB image size that you can upload. Some of the tips that can make the identification more accurately is to make sure that the text is horizontal and not touching. The resolution for the letter must be over 80 pixels for best results, the background color must be lighter than the characters color and making the image grayscale. Minimum number of characters is 2 and maximum at 10.

[ Visit What Font is ]

Previously I’ve tested and reviewed free Rising Antivirus. In my opinion, it is a very good antivirus which I will prefer to use if I had to choose between AVG and Rising Antivirus. However, many people would avoid using Rising Antivirus just because it is developed in Beijing China, where the 2008 Olympics will be held, as there are news saying that China is a home to half of all malicious websites. I think this perception is wrong.

Anyway, different people has different thinking and I don’t want to argue about that. I am here to do what I do best, which is to find interesting stuff and share with you guys everyday without fail. Today I will share with you another free antivirus which I discovered and this AV is developed in United States. It is made by a very well known vulnerability and security research company called eEye Digital Security. Let’s check it out…


Blink Personal provides home PC protection plus Internet Security. Including all-in-one antivirus, antispyware, antiphishing, identity theft protection, plus personal firewalls.Blink’s interface is intuitive and easy to use because it resembles Windows XP’s streamlined Control Panel, and icons include summaries of configuration details.

Blink Personal Features:

Firewall – Controls network traffic to and from this system, permitting or denying communications based on a set of rules.

Virus and Spyware Protection – Performs in-memory protection and disk scanning for computer threats such as viruses, worms, trojans, adware and spyware.

Intrusion Prevention – Monitors network activities for malicious or unwanted behavior and reacts in real-time to block or prevent those activities.

Vulnerability Assessment – Scans the local machine and identifies missing patches, misconfigurations and poor security settings.

System Protection – Provides proactive, host-based security against zero-day attacks.

Is Blink FREE?
There are 2 versions of Blink, the Personal and Professional edition. The Blink Personal Edition normally cost $24.95 and the Professional edition cost $29. Currently eEye is giving away their Blink Personal edition for you to use for a year if you live in the United States and Canada, or for 30 days if you live outside of these countries. I’ve tried setting my clock few months ahead and it tells me that my license has expired. The weird thing is when I hit the back button and then the Next button to re-enter the old serial number, it allows me to use Blink Personal Edition again.

Is Blink effective against computer security threats?
I’ve tested Blink against a few public version of trojans which can be detected by other antivirus program and it can immediately warns me that a backdoor is found. Unfortunately Blink is unable to detect any backdoor when I tested it with private version of trojan. A private version of trojan is meant to avoid being detected by an antivirus program. If the antivirus fails to detect it, then I can say that its heuristic detection is not that good. One thing I can be sure of is Blink can protect you from most of zero day exploits and vulnerabilities.

Is Blink light on system resources?
From the official website, it mentioned that Blink is extremely lightweight and the Blink endpoint protection agent runs at around 60MB. From Sysinternals Process Explorer, I see that there are 4 processes that belongs to Blink. All 4 processes takes up 124MB memory usage! That is a freaking bloated internet security software and they dare to say that Blink is EXTREMELY lightweight?

So there’s my review on eEye Blink Personal Edition. Now you tell me whether would you use Blink Personal Edition to protect your computer against internet security threats?

[ Download eEye Blink Personal Edition ]

Having the latest antivirus program and also virus definition signature is very important to keep your computer safe from latest threats and also stability. All antivirus program has their own convenient built-in updater for you to easily update the program and virus signature. However, I noticed that the latest AVG 8 program updates seems to have lots of problems if compared to other antivirus program. Some of the error messages that I know of are “a bin file is missing”, “General error – not enough free memory, write error”, “AVG update process could not be finished due to insufficient free disk space or insufficient user rights. Disk space is fine.” and the latest one is “Invalid Update Control CTF File Error”.

One of my client’s laptop had AVG8 installed and he kept on getting the Invalid Update Control CTF File Error whenever he wants to update AVG8. The most common way of fixing a software problem is to reinstall. Unfortunately I tried reinstalling AVG8 on his computer but couldn’t fix the Invalid Update Control CTF File problem.

Finally I found an easy solution to fix the Invalid Update Control CTF File error problem during update.


Searching for CTF file on my client’s computer revealed that there are 2 CTF files which is avginfoavi.ctf and avginfowin.ctf used by AVG8 and located in All Users application data folder. I noticed that every time when you check for AVG updates, the AVG8 update manager will check the avginfoavi.ctf and avginfowin.ctf files in the update server.

Simply deleting both avginfoavi.ctf and avginfowin.ctf files fixes the Invalid Update Control CTF File error problem. There are 3 ways to delete the CTF files.

1. Search for avginfoavi.ctf and avginfowin.ctf in Windows and delete it.

2. Manually go to the folder where both of the CTF files are located and delete it. The Application Data folder is hidden and you’ll need to enable show hidden files and folders in Folder Options to see the folder.

In Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\avg8\update\download
In Windows Vista: C:\ProgramData\avg8\update\download

3. AVG has created a small executable file called deleteupdatefiles.exe that will automatically delete the download folder that contains the CTF files.

Hope that either 3 methods above will help you fix the problem in updating AVG8.

The most recent firewall test from Matousec shows that the latest Comodo Internet Security v4.0 grabs the first place with a perfect 100% score which is pretty impressive. The good thing about Comodo Antivirus is you can use it in commercial environment unlike the free Avast, Avira and AVG which you can only use it on home computers. While I was testing Comodo Antivirus v4.0, the most annoying problem that I encountered was the slow virus database update. Updating Comodo the first time requires to download a 87.5MB base file and a horrible speed of only 5KBps. Through calculation, it would take nearly 5 hours to complete the update and I really don’t have that much of time to spare.

The first thing I did was I fired up URLSnooper to sniff the URL that the base file is located thinking that I could probably manually download the file using a download manager with a few simultaneous connections. I found out that Comodo has 4 update servers, 3 located in the US (eu1.download.comodo.com, us3.download.comodo.com & us4.download.comodo.com) and the other 1 in Europe (eu2.download.comodo.com). Comodo randomly assigns the update server to use and I noticed that I could only achieve full download speed of 160KBps on one of the servers.


You can know which Comodo update mirror is the fastest by manually test downloading the files below. You don’t need to download the whole file, just download and check the full speed that you get and then cancel the download.

EU1 (US Washington): http://eu1.download.comodo.com/av/updates40/sigs/bases/bases.cav

EU2 (UK Congleton): http://eu2.download.comodo.com/av/updates40/sigs/bases/bases.cav

US3 (US New Jersey): http://us3.download.comodo.com/av/updates40/sigs/bases/bases.cav

US4 (US New Jersey): http://us4.download.comodo.com/av/updates40/sigs/bases/bases.cav

You can configure the update server to use in Comodo by opening Comodo, click on More button at the top right of the program and click Settings. Click on Update tab, click the Add button and type in the host for example, http://us4.download.comodo.com/. Make sure you uncheck the default http://download.comodo.com/ and then click OK button. Do note that this is not recommended because if the update server which you manually chosen is down for maintenance, then update would not be possible.

Many people has suggested to Comodo to offer an offline signature database update for the longest time but for some reasons they are not doing it. So it would be nice if Comodo puts more effort in the updater because it doesn’t support resuming of the virus database downloads. If the download failed at 80MB with only 7MB remaining to go, the download will have to start all over again, leaving the user cursing !@#$%^#!. Currently the only way I know to transfer the database from one computer to another is by backing up the “scanners” folder which is located in C:\Program Files\Comodo\, and then copy it to another computer from Safe Mode.

I never had problems accessing any websites even though it is known that our Malaysian ISP TM Net has implemented blocking of some “offensive” websites. I got to know more about this when I was helping a friend in configuring his Firefox web browser and he told me that some of the websites on his bookmarks are no longer accessible. One of it is GutterUncensored.com which seems to be a p0rn mixed with some political news website. I am not bothered by the political news in Malaysia because of the “drama” but I know that if something sensitive being posted on a website, that website is at risk of being blocked by Streamyx Internet filter.

I tried to ping gutteruncensored.com and got the error “Ping request could not find host. Please check the name and try again”. When I did a lookup with nslookup, it says that gutteruncensored.com is a non-existent domain. Now when I tried using online ping and lookup from Network-Tools.com, they are able to ping and resolve the domain to the IP 64.202.189.170. The first thing that came to my mind is to change the DNS because by default the wireless router provided by Streamyx is set to use their DNS server which is 202.188.0.133 and 202.188.1.5. I tried changing to Google Public DNS and the blocked website is able to load instantly! Looks like the engineers did not put a lot of effort in filtering websites.


Changing your DNS servers settings is pretty easy. Even if your wireless router that you got for free from TM Net is set to use TM’s DNS servers, you can overwrite it by setting the Google Public DNS on your Local Area Connection or Wireless Network Connection. You can refer to this guide on how to configure your network settings to use Google Public DNS.

Do take note that if you use a broadband modem where you need to manually connect like what is shown on the image below, then you will need to set the Google Public DNS on the broadband connection properties.

1. Go to Control Panel
2a. If you’re on Category view, click on View network status and tasks
2b. If you’re on Large or Small icons view, click on Network and Sharing Center
3. Click on Change adapter settings that is on the left hand sidebar.
4. Right click on Broadband Connection and select Properties
5. Go to Networking tab
6. Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) to highlight it and click the Properties button.
7. Select “Use the following DNS server addresses” and enter the following DNS servers:

Preferred DNS server: 8.8.8.8
Alternate DNS server: 8.8.4.4

8. Click OK on all windows.

If you’re not comfortable in using the Google’s Public DNS servers, you can try OpenDNS.

Preferred DNS server: 208.67.222.222
Alternative DNS server: 208.67.220.220

Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 makes it easy to protect your home network, personal identity, and online activity. It guards against present viruses, spyware, and identity theft as well as the web threats of tomorrow. Confidently e-mail, shop, bank, or share photos online, knowing your privacy and files are well protected. Easy to install, configure, and manage, Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 automatically updates and immunizes your PC and removes malicious threats buried deep inside your computer. With features for home network protection, URL filtering, data-theft and online-fraud protection, unauthorized change prevention, and much more, this superior suite goes far beyond the basics.

Here are some key features of Trend Micro PCcillin Internet Security 2008: Anti-virus, Anti-spyware, Email safety scan, Protection against rootkits, Proactive intrusion blocking, Anti-spam, Two-way firewall, Home network protection, Website authentication, Parental controls and Data theft prevention.

Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 normally cost $49.95 per year. To get your free Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 serial number that is valid for 3 years (value of $150), please continue reading and follow the few really simple steps below.


1. Go to this page http://www.sccoast.net/tools/internetsecurity/download.php and note down the serial number (PFEP-9991-7436-4997-1545)

2. Download Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 v16.1 from the link below.
http://www.trendmicro.com/ftp/products/tis/TrendMicro_TIS_16.1_1063_x32.exe

3. After finished downloading, run the installer, enter serial number that you got from step 1 and proceed with the installation.

4. After finished installing, you’ll need to activate Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 by providing your first name, last name, email address and country. Restart when you’re asked to.

You now have a fully licensed Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 valid until September 29, 2011. Make sure you update the definition and program after restarting your computer by clicking the Update Now button.

Here is a few simple test I conducted with Trend Micro Internet Security 2008. It wasn’t able to detect the undetectable trojan that I have using the manual scan but when I tried to run the trojan, it detected a suspicious activity that could pose a security risk and automatically blocked it. I ran a full system scan and it took only few minutes to finish scanning 50000 targets/files. Pretty impressive but one thing I don’t like about Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 is it takes up as much as 60MB in memory usage. During scanning, the memory usage can go up to 80MB.

There are a lot of keygenerators and cracks for Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 but none at all for Trend Internet Security 2009. Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 works on Windows 2000, XP,and Vista (32/64bit). Actually I got to know about this offer much ealier but didn’t want to immediately post it on this blog because the license supposed to last until December 4th 2008. So I thought maybe by December 5th, HTC Broadband will give a new serial number that can be used on the latest Trend Micro Internet Security 2009 v17. Unfortunately that is not happening because the serial number expiration date has been extended to September 29th 2011! I’ve tried my best to find a way for free upgrade but that wasn’t possible too. So if you are a big fan of PC-Cillin or currently using Trend Internet Security 2008 and the license is expiring soon, then this promo is for you. This offer is actually FREE for all HTC Residential Internet customers, that’s why I did not use the word “EVERYONE“.

I recently upgraded my broadband connection from 1Mbps to 4Mbps because my new house is within 5KM range from TM exchange. I would say that the Blockbuster Deal 4Mbps package is really worth it because I get to call nationwide for free and also I am able to download 4 times faster than before. The package also comes with a free cordless deck phone and a free WiFi modem. Even though I already have a Belkin router that can support more than 4Mbps but I just took the WiFi modem since it is free and I can use it as a backup in case my Belkin router goes faulty.

The free WiFi modem given by Streamyx is RIGER DB108-WL and honestly, the router looks cheap with very low quality casing. I connected the router to my laptop for first time configuration. The only manual I found is a piece of paper from Riger Corporation Sdn Bhd for Smart Configure. The instruction asks to open http://192.168.1.1 in Internet Explorer browser and type in both the username and password as tmuser. The WiFi modem configuration page is very simple and requires only a few basic information to get connected. From there, it seems that this RIGER DB108-WL wifi modem only supports WEP encryption which can be cracked by anyone who knows how to run a few commands in BackTrack.

Fortunately I found that it is possible to set the wireless encryption to WPA2 which offers better wireless security than WEP.


First, fill up everything that is on the Smart config-PPPoE page and click on the Save/Reboot button. Then click the Logout link from the left pane and then login again with the username & password tmadmin. You will notice that the configuration page now shows more options. I got to know about the tmadmin login through the full RIGER manual that is uploaded to Scribd.

Now click on Wireless > Security. At the Network Authentication drop down box, select from Open to WPA2-PSK. Enter a password at the WPA Pre-Shared Key box. The best password to use is to make sure you set one that is not even a word consisting of both letters and numbers with at least 8 characters. Dictionary attack on WPA2 would definitely fail to crack. Leave the WPA Group Rekey Interval (0) and WPA Encryption (AES) as default. Finally click the Save/Apply button. You now have a much safer wireless network. Do note that if you go back to the Smart config-PPPoE page after enabling WPA2, you will see that Enable Security checkbox is unchecked. You can simply ignore that.

Another tip is to enable UPnP so that software such as uTorrent is able to automatically forward ports. You can enable UPnP for RIGER DB108-WL wifi modem at Advanced Setup > LAN and check the Enable UPnP checkbox.

By default the DNS that is set to the RIGER DB108-WL modem is TM Net’s DNS 202.188.0.133 and 202.188.1.5. If you normally visit websites that are blocked by Streamyx, you can easily bypass that by changing the it to Google DNS 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. The Smart-Config PPPoE page is very useful and easy but then they should at least encourage the usage of WPA2 instead of WEP. It is just WRONG to still use WEP today.

It has been nearly a week since I am having slow loading problem on certain websites. During the day, it is still not too bad as I can visit the sites that I normally do. But when it reaches at night, I can’t even sign in to Windows Live Messenger, can’t login to my Adsense to check my earnings, can’t login to online banking to pay my bills, and searching in Google takes forever to load the searched results! Luckily I do not have problems accessing my own website which is hosted in US.

What the heck is going on with our Malaysian Internet Service Provider TM Net Streamyx? Whenever there are problems, it takes weeks for them to fix it. Come on, you are an ISP and you should hire really professional people, and not some n00bs that does trial and error. You should also change your mascot from blue colored hippo to a snail! Well enough of the rant. I am here to solve problems and not be a cry baby.

If you’re in Malaysia and getting really slow connections on certain websites during this period and also in future, here is a solution that you can try.


The reliability of our ISP is very important because no matter what, we’ll need to go through them first before able to surf the web. If they provide us with crappy and unstable connections, it is still not the end of the world because we can try to use VPN or open proxies. I have a WiTopia VPN account but it is also slow maybe because the server is located in US and our ISP is (always) having connectivity problems with international links.

I was browsing Malaysia’s very popular LowYat forum and found a thread that reports a very fast open proxy. By setting our browser to use the open proxy, a lot of websites started to load REALLY fast.

Here are the steps to set our browser to use the open proxy. For Mozilla Firefox browser, go to Tools > Options > Advanced > Network tab > click Settings button on Connection, select Manual proxy configuration and enter the HTTP Proxy as 219.93.178.162 with the port 3128. Check Use this proxy server for all protocols.

For Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options > Connections tab > click LAN Settings button > check Use a proxy server for your LAN (These settings will not apply to dial-up or VPN connections). Enter the address as 219.93.178.162 with the port 3128.

Please take note that visiting blogspot URL using Firefox with 219.93.178.162 proxy gives me a 500 Server Error with the message “The following error occurred: [code=CACHE_FILL_OPEN_FILE] An internal error prevented the object from being sent to the client and cached. Try again later. Please contact the administrator.”

As for Internet Explorer, you’ll get HTTP 500 Internal Server Error with the message “The website cannot display the page. Most likely causes:The website is under maintenance. The website has a programming error.” When you get such error and need to access that website, you’d have to set your browser not to use the open proxy or use another open proxy. I found another open proxy (IP:219.93.175.67 Port:3128) which is also fast and able to load a lot of websites. If you’re using Firefox, there is one very useful Firefox add-on called Multiproxy Switch which you can use to easily switch between multiple proxy configurations.

Other than having problems loading some websites, it is nearly impossible for me to connect to my Windows Live Messenger at night. I kept on trying to connect and got a total of 3 different error codes “80072efd, 81000306, 80048820 with extended error code 80048439”.

To solve this problem, open up the browser, set it to use the open proxy and go to http://webmessenger.msn.com/ or http://www.meebo.com/ to login to our MSN account and use the web based messenger. Rest assured that both of these websites encrypts your login credentials with SSL. If you’ve set your Internet Explorer to use the proxy, your MSN should be able to connect because Windows Live Messenger uses the default connection setting from IE.

I wouldn’t advice you to simply login to any websites especially online banking sites using the open proxy. Although online banking websites has SSL and will encrypt your username and password, I still wouldn’t want to risk my bank account being compromised. Remember, this is a temporary solution until our ISP TM Net Streamyx get things right again.

When a virus or malware is active on the computer, meaning that is it running in background, it can do a lot of damage to your computer. They can stop antivirus or antispyware from working, enable restriction on the computer by disabling task manager, sending keylogs to the hacker and etc. Since a virus needs to be active and running in background all the time, there is surely a method that it uses to auto run itself whenever Windows is booted up. Locating the auto startup entry is not difficult using Sysinternals Autoruns but virus makers have made it possible to auto re-add the startup entry whenever it is deleted.

That means you now have to first locate the virus process and terminate it, then only remove the startup entry. A virus disabling Windows Task Manager to prevent itself from being killed is no longer efficient since we can always use a third party task manager such as Process Explorer, Anvir Task Manager and etc to find the virus and terminate it. Some virus programmers have gotten smarter by protecting its process either through injection (firewall bypass) or a smart piece of code that creates a blue screen of death if you ever try to terminate the process in Windows.


Here is a screenshot of a bot creator where it has the “Protect Process” option.

If I try to end the process in Windows Task Manager, I get a warning saying “Ending this process will shut down the operating system immediately. You will lose all unsaved data. Are you sure you want to continue?”. Checking the Abandon unsaved data and shut down checkbox and then clicking the Shut down button causes a blue screen with crash dump and auto restarting Windows. To be honest, even “some” antivirus is unable to clean this virus because it kept on trying to terminate the process which ends up crashing Windows. If you encounter a similar case, it doesn’t mean you have to reformat your computer and waste hours to reinstall Windows and all your applications.

First you will need to know where the file is. The Task Manager in Windows 7 is already capable of doing that. Right click on the taskbar and select Start Task Manager. Locate the process that you cannot kill, right click on it and select Properties. Take note of the Location that is shown in the properties window. If Windows Task Manager has been disabled, use Process Explorer instead.

Now download BlitzBlank and run it. At the designer tab, click once at Type column and select File. Then click once at the < File path > which will reveal the … button. Click on the … button and locate the executable file. Make sure the action is Delete, you can change it to Move if you want. If you wish to backup the file, click once on the checkbox for Backup. Finally click Execute Now button which will prompt you to save all your work and close all running applications to avoid data loss followed by a reboot. Before Windows is even loaded, BlitzBlank will delete the file that was specified earlier by working at a very low level.

There are other similar free tools that can do the same thing as BlitzBlank such as Unlocker and EMCO MoveOnBoot. I prefer BlitzBlank because it is portable and small in size. EMCO MoveOnBoot requires installation and is 24.1MB in size. Unlocker also requires installation although there are unofficial portable versions.

Another manual method of deleting file that cannot be deleted or terminated without using any third party tool is via Command Prompt from Windows System Recovery. Restart your computer and start tapping the F8 key. When you see the Advanced Boot Options menu, select Repair Your Computer and hit enter. Select a keyboard (by default is US) and click Next. When you see the System Recovery Options, select Command Prompt. The default current directory should show X:\windows\system32. Try changing the drive letter until you find one that is the same as your C: drive in Windows. For example, the C: drive when I am in Windows ended up as D: in System Recovery command prompt. Now all I need to do is use the cd command to navigate to the file that I want to delete and then use del command to delete the file. To move, use the move command.

I am supposed to announce the winners for Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 license today but I’ve decided to do that tomorrow because I have something more important to share with all of you. You know I try to bring you the best computer tip of the day before anyone else does it. Rest assured that the comments will be closed to prevent further entries for the KIS 2009 lucky draw which will lower your chances in winning a license.

I’ve received an email today morning from Merlin Magii regarding VNU offering free commercial download for the latest iolo Search and Recover 5 worth $39.95. iolo Search and Recover 5 is developed from the same company as the popular System Mechanic 8. Search and Recover 5 is a very powerful yet easy to use data recovery software that can help you recover deleted pictures, movies, songs, sounds and emails. Other than that, it has advanced disk tools that can help you to make a copy of a drive, create virtual drive, search for lost or damaged partition and even a file terminator to permanently and securely delete sensitive information through your right click menu.


iolo Search and Recover 5 is an excellent data recovery software that helps you instantly recover deleted photos, documents, email messages, videos, MP3 files, and more. The easy-to-use interface allows you to quickly sort through irrelevant files to rescue your precious data—be it from a hard drive, a floppy disk, a CD/DVD, an MP3 player, a digital camera, or any other portable device.

It’s StrongScan technology recovers information even if you have emptied the Recycle Bin, formatted a drive, or suffered a PC disaster—even years after the data was lost. Never worry about losing your files again! Search and Recover also offers tools for system backups and the secure deletion of sensitive data, making it a comprehensive product for managing your critical data.

To get your free activation key for iolo Search and Recover, you can either head on to the original VNU Search and Recover promotional page, or follow the easy step-by-step instructions below.

1. Go to this promotional page http://www.iolo.com/casr to get your Search and Recover activation key.

2. You should see a Continue button like image shown below. If you do not see it, please temporarily disable your script blocker such as NoScript, AdBlock Plus and also antivirus.

3. You should now see that Search & Recover 5 1 Year Subscription Promotion has been added to the shopping cart with the unit price $0.00. Click the red Secure Checkout button.

4. Enter your first name, last name, address, city, postal code, country, phone number, email address and click Continue. Make sure you enter a valid email address because the Search & Recover activation key is sent there.

5. Click Continue again on delivery method page.

6. And finally click Place Order. You should be forwarded to a page that says “Thank You! Your Order #2101XXXXXXX is complete”.

7. Now check your email that you’ve entered in step 4. You should receive an email from iolo technologies, LLC with the subject “Thank you for ordering from iolo technologies, #2101XXXXXXX”. Note down the Search & Recover 5 1 Year Subscription Promotion activation key.

8. To download the latest Search & Recover, you can either download from VNU site, or here to directly download the SearchAndRecover.exe installer.

9. Install and when you see a dialog box below, select “I own Search and Recover and can enter my serial number later” and click Next.

10. Enter the activation key at the next window and you now have a fully licensed iolo Search and Recover 5 valid for 1 year.

Here are a few important tips that you should know on how to improve your chances of successfully recovering data. For effective data recovery, you must recover your data as soon as possible and save recovered files to a drive that is different from the drive it originally existed on. For best results, do not restart your PC after data loss, save any documents or files, start or use any programs other than Search and Recover, and compact or compress your mailbox when want to recover your emails.

Chris Wiles, I hope it is fine for me to post this as it is a website promo and not a magazine promotion for your magazine readers. I am not distributing this software nor mirroring this promotion. I am actually promoting your site by sending my readers to your VNU. If you do a search on the promotional iolo link, you’ll find that there are already sites “mirroring” this promotion and not helping you to promote.

To keep up with times, I recently purchased a new Sony Ericsson Xperia ray smartphone that runs on Android so that I can play around with it. It is a little overwhelming at first because there are icons everywhere but I eventually got used to it. I’ve heard about rooting android phones which is actually the same term as jailbreaking an iPhone. One thing is for sure. Rooting your android will void any warranty that you have on your phone unless there is a stock rom for your device in which case you can reverse the rooting and make your phone stock again.

Checking on the steps that has been posted on numerous forums and they seemed a little confusing with a lot of new jargon to learn. Thanks to UnlockRoot tool, it currently support automatic rooting of 563 android devices with a single click of a mouse button. Of course before rooting your android phone, it is best for you to first read up what is rooting and why should you root your android phone. If you think it is all worth it, then go ahead and root it with UnlockRoot.


First you should check if your android phone is listed on the support page. If your phone is supported, download UnlockRoot and install. First, you need to enable USB Debugging mode. To turn it on, go to Settings > Applications > Development and check the USB debugging checkbox. Then connect your phone to your computer and make sure that the computer is able to recognize your phone. If it doesn’t recognize, then you will have to download and install the software which contains the driver provided by the phone manufacturer.

Now run UnlockRoot and click the Root button.

UnlockRoot will then try to determine your phone model with version. Click on the correct model to confirm.

After successfully rooting your android, UnlockRoot will prompt if you would like to install an app called PowerSaver which claims to help to prolong the phone battery life. They also have a PRO version that cost $3.86 that enables level 4 power saving mode.

Finally you will be prompted to reboot your phone to complete the rooting process.

Congratulations! Your android phone is now rooted and you have full control over your system and can tweak it to your liking. You may have noticed that there is an UnRoot button at UnlockRoot. The UnRoot button does exactly what it says which is unrooting your android phone which restores the warranty if it hasn’t expired.

Download UnlockRoot

I’ve encountered problems with uninstalling Norton or Symantec products. Actually the uninstallation goes well when I do it in Add or Remove Programs from Control Panel but when I restart the computer, it shows error and unable to boot in to Windows. Somehow uninstalling Norton or Symantec products can corrupt Windows! It happened on a Windows NT4 server and Windows XP professional.

Now I found a tool to remove Norton products developed by Norton themselves. Think about this… Why would Norton create a Removal Tool when it can be removed from Add or Remove Programs? There must be something wrong uninstalling Norton products from Add or Remove Programs.


Norton Removal Tool can remove:

1. Norton AntiSpam 2004 and 2005
2. Norton AntiVirus 2003 through 2007.1
3. Norton Ghost 2009, 9.0 and 10.0
4. Norton GoBack 3.1 through 4.2
5. Norton Internet Security 2003 through 2007.1
6. Norton Password Manager
7. Norton Personal Firewall 2003 through 2006
8. Norton SystemWorks 2003 through 2007
9. Norton Confidential Online 2007
10. Norton Internet Security Add-on Pack
11. Norton 360

Very easy to use. Just select the version of Norton Removal Tool to run (either Windows XP/2000 or Windows Me/98). Accept the agreement and enter a random generated security code.

[ Download Norton Removal Tool for Windows XP/2000 ]
[ Download Norton Removal Tool for Windows Me/98 ]