Simple Tips to Reduce Disk Usage in Windows 7

Friendly Computers found this article useful for Windows 7 users and would like to share it with you.

If you’re wondering what have been taking up space on your hard disk, then you have come to the right place. In today’s article, we’ll show you how to get rid of unneeded files from your computer.

First of all let’s find out what’s hogging your hard disk. We recommend that you download SpaceSniffer. Once you start it up, it will map your hard drive,  and shows big files and folder in your system. SpaceSniffer comes with a user manual that shows you every neat stuff that you can do with SpaceSniffer.

some of our favourite ones are: filtering temporary files …

… or finding files that we have not touched for more than a year; they are usually good candidates for removal.

Among all the files,  Pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys stood out in SpaceSniffer; They occupied six GB of our hard disk.

In a default installation, Windows creates a page file (pagefile.sys) that Windows uses to hold part of a program or memory that does not fit the memory. Microsoft recommends us not to remove this file – even when you have lots of memory. However, we can remove hiberfil.sys from our system.

Cleaning Restore Points

Installing programs or drivers can make Windows run slowly or unpredictably. Windows maintain restore points, and use them to return your PC’s system files and programs to a time when everything works fine. However, restore points do take up a lot of space in our hard disk. We can use disk clean up to remove restore points, but if you decide to do this you won’t be able to roll back your system. Look up Disk Clean up from your start menu and run it as administrator.

Disk Cleanup reduces the number of unnecessary files. It allows you to remove temporary files, empties your recycle bin, and remove a variety of system files and other items that you no longer need.

Open the “More Options” tab and click the clean up button.

You might want to consider scheduling disk clean up to remove old and temporary files from your PC from time to time.

Use CCleaner to Get More Space

While Disk Cleanup is a great tool to delete junk files, CCleaner gives you more options to clean your computer. CCleaner default setting lets you clean IE Junk files, Windows Explorer cache, and system dumps.

Head over to the applications tab and  you will find that you can remove unneeded files from each application selectively. For example, you can choose to clean Firefox cookies, but not Chrome’s.

Windows maintain a set of registry files that stores settings for your PC, for instance, what background that you use for your desktop. Whenever we uninstall program, some unused file association may remain dangling in the registry, and overtime your registry may become bloated and slows down your PC. CCleaner gives you an easy way to clean your registry. Click the registry icon, perform a scan for issues, and click the “fix selected issues button” to clean your registry.

CCleaner gives you a set of tools to remove unneeded files. It’s uninstall loads up files way faster than Windows uninstall “add remove programs”.

System Restore in CCleaner gives more option to remove system restore points than Disk Cleanup. It greys out your  last system restore point, so that you can’t remove it, for safety reason.

Windows will not delete the actual data that you deleted, it simply remove there reference to that file, and overwrite it when you save new data. This pose a risk; some clever geek may sneak into your computer, and reconstruct your data before Windows over write it. If you’re worried, you can instruct CCleaner to clean these kind of data using the “Drive Wiper”.

There are two type of wipe, free space and entire drive. You should select free space only, unless you want to erase every file in the drive.

CCleaner gives you some security options, but simple overwrite will be enough for most occasions.

Head over to the options’ Advance settings and make sure that you select “Save all settings to INI File”. You can also  schedule it to clean your computer on a regular basis.

We hope that our tips help you get back your hard disk space. Feel free to share any other tips with the other fellow readers in the comments section.

Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/62946/beginner-geek-simple-tips-to-reduce-disk-usage-in-windows-7/

6 Registry Hacks to Make Your PC Faster

Friendly Computers would like to share with you these 6 tips to make your Windows 7 PC faster.

The Windows Registry is a database that holds your operating system's configurations and settings. This includes everything from how long your mouse must hover over a taskbar icon before the preview pops up (in Windows Vista and Windows 7) to performance settings.

Windows 7 (and Vista) have more eye-candy features built into the operating system, but a number of Registry hacks and tweaks can speed up--or, at least, appear to speed up--the performance of your computer. Before we start mucking around with your PC's guts, however, we're going to make sure that you have a reliable backup of your Registry in case something goes sour.

Though editing the Windows Registry is not nearly as scary as it sounds, making an incorrect change can cripple your system. To ensure that this doesn't happen, it's important to take the precaution of backing up part, or all, of the Registry before you proceed.

Back Up the Entire Registry

To back up your Registry, you can use the free Registry-specific backup tool ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT). ERUNT is simple to use, more reliable than System Restore, and works with Windows XP, Vista, and 7 (even 64-bit versions). ERUNT also saves each restore point independently of the other points, unlike System Restore (in System Restore, all restore points are dependent on other points).

Download ERUNT here.

Back Up Part of the Registry

If you're changing just one part of the Windows Registry, and you know which part that is, you don't have to back up the entire Registry. Instead, you can back up the part you plan on changing using the Registry's export feature.

First, go to Start, Run, type regedit, and press Yes. This will open the Registry Editor.

Next, find the part of the Registry you're going to change. Right-click on the Registry key you plan on changing, and click "Export." The Registry Editor will prompt you to save a .reg file to your hard drive.

To undo Registry changes, just find your .reg file and double-click it. The .reg file will reset your Registry values to their existing values (but will not remove values that you've added).

Hack Your Registry

Using the built-in Registry Editor.Now that you've backed up your Registry--perhaps more than once--it's time to start hacking away. To get to the Windows Registry, go to Start > Run (in Windows Vista/7 you will have to type run into the Start menu search bar and press Enter). Type regedit, click Yes, and the Registry Editor will open.

Hack 1: Speed Up Aero Peek

A quick tweak to speed up Aero Peek. (Click for larger image.)Windows 7's Aero Peek lets you see the desktop when you move your mouse cursor over to the "show desktop" button at the end of the taskbar. The standard delay time for the Aero Peek preview is 500 milliseconds, or half a second. Here's how to speed it up:

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced.

2. Right-click on the right pane and click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new DWORD "DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime."

3. Double-click on DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime to open it. Under "Base," click Decimal and then enter the delay time (in milliseconds) in the "Value data" field. Click OK, and your Aero Peek time will be set. You can set the value to higher (a longer delay time) if you're activating it too often by accident, or to lower (a shorter delay time) if half a second is just too long.

4. Log off and log back on for the change to take effect.

Hack 2: Speed Up Taskbar Previews

You can speed up (or slow down) taskbar previews here. (Click for larger image.)When you roll over taskbar icons in Windows Vista and in Windows 7, little previews appear. The standard delay time for these previews is 400 milliseconds, or just under half a second. If this is too slow (or too fast) for you, you can adjust the delay time with an easy Registry hack.

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced.

2. Right-click on the right pane and click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new DWORD "ExtendedUIHoverTime."

3. Double-click on ExtendedUIHoverTime to open it. Under "Base," click Decimal and then enter in the delay time (in milliseconds) in the "Value data" field. Click OK to set the time (default is 400 milliseconds).

4. Log off and then log back in for the change to take effect.

Hack 3: Speed Up Menus

Ditch the menu display delay. (Click for larger image.)If you'd like to speed up the menus in Windows Vista or Windows 7, try this easy Registry tweak:

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop.

2. Find MenuShowDelay and double-click to open. Adjust the value in milliseconds (the default is 400 milliseconds, or just under half a second).

3. Log off and then log back on for the change to take effect.

Hack 4: Prevent Reboots

Tired of losing work to Windows Update reboots? Fix that here. (Click for larger image.)If you have a habit of leaving your computer on all the time (as do I), you'll occasionally run into the problem of automatic system reboots. These usually happen after Windows downloads some sort of important update, and will usually be preceded by a notification (that gives you about 10 to 15 minutes warning, unless you click it away). If you're not around to see said notification, and you have a lot of windows or important documents open on your computer, these reboots can be a hassle.

So here's how to keep your computer from automatically rebooting with an easy Registry hack. This hack works for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Policies > Microsoft > Windows.

2. Right-click in the right pane and select New > Key. This will create a new folder. Name the new folder "WindowsUpdate."

3. Open WindowsUpdate and right-click in the right pane (there will be a value already in the pane called "Default"). Select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name this DWORD "NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers."

4. Open NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers and change the Value data to 1. Do not change the Base button to "Decimal"; instead, keep it at "Hexadecimal." Click OK.

5. Exit the Registry Editor and log off and log back in for the settings to take effect. Your system will now never force a reboot without your explicit permission.

Hack 5: Disable Notification Balloons

Your notification area is constantly flashing with balloon pop-ups. Cut them out here. (Click for larger image.)If you hate pop-up notification balloons on your Windows Vista or Windows 7 taskbar, you can disable them using a simple Registry hack:

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced.

2. Right-click on the right pane and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name your new DWORD "EnableBalloonTips."

3. Double-click on EnableBalloonTips and set the Value data to 0. It doesn't matter if you have Decimal or Hexadecimal clicked under "Base," because 0 is 0 in both decimal and hexadecimal.

4. Log off and log back on for the change to take effect. You'll no longer see any annoying notification balloons from the taskbar.

Hack 6: Boot XP Faster

Is Windows XP booting too slowly? Here's how to speed up your boot-time with a quick Registry tweak.

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > ContentIndex.

2. In the right pane will be a value called "StartupDelay." Double-click on StartupDelay to open it. Change the "Base" from Hexadecimal to Decimal, and enter 40,000 (the default setting is 480,000).

3. Exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer. Your computer should boot up considerably faster--while this worked for me on my Windows XP laptop, values lower than 40,000 didn't produce a noticeable difference.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/228071/6_registry_hacks_to_make_your_pc_faster.html#tk.hp_fv

Microsoft Launches Free On-Demand Virus/Malware Scanner

Friendly Computers found this article useful and would like to share it with you.

Microsoft has launched a new, free virus/malware scanner, that's designed to be used if you think your computer might be infected.

The program is called the Microsoft Safety Scanner.  To use it, download the file from http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx and then run it on your PC.  The app is portable, so doesn't need an installer.  When you run it, it will analyze your computer and detect, and remove, many of the most prevalent viruses.

Microsoft points out that this on-demand tool is not a substitute for a proper on-access antivirus product.  It's simply designed to be used in emergencies, such as if you think your computer may have a problem that has managed to sneak past your existing defences.  Also, note that the program automatically expires after 10 days, so if you want to run it regularly you'll need to keep downloading the latest version.

At first glance, Safety Scanner is a welcome addition to Microsoft's range of free security tools, of which its Security Essentials suite is probably the best known.  But at 67 MB for the download, for a program that expires after 10 days, we can't work out why it needs to be so huge.  McAfee offers a similar product, which is also free, called Stinger.  It doesn't expire after 10 days, can be downloaded from http://www.mcafee.com/us/downloads/free-tools/how-to-use-stinger.aspx, and runs to just a 7.7 MB download.

Source: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/microsoft-launches-free-demand-virusmalware-scanner.htm

Six Windows 7 Nightmares (and How to Fix Them)

Friendly Computers would like to help you to fix these Windows 7 nightmares.

You sit up suddenly in a cold sweat, and scream. But you're in bed, and it was just a bad dream. Sighing with relief, you get up, get dressed, go to work, and turn on your PC.

Then you sit up suddenly in a cold sweat, and scream--but this time, it's not a dream. It's a Windows nightmare.

Compared with its predecessors, Windows 7 is remarkably secure and dependable. It's far from perfect, though: An unbootable PC, a nasty piece of malware, or a single but important file gone missing can make you lose days or even months of work. And you can't solve every nightmare by waking up.

Here are ways out of six common Windows 7 disasters. I'll tell you how to fix a PC that won't boot, retrieve files from an inaccessible hard drive, stop frequent Blue Screens of Death, restore a forgotten administrator password, remove malware, and find a missing file.

1. Your PC Won't Boot

If turning on your PC doesn't bring you into Windows, try booting from a Windows 7 DVD or a recovery disc.

Boot from a Windows 7 System Repair Disc, and you'll find tools to heal an unbootable PC.

You may already have the DVD. If Windows 7 didn't come with your computer but you installed it yourself, you have the disc. If you don't have it, you can borrow someone else's disc.

Alternatively you can borrow someone else's Windows 7 computer and use it to create a System Repair Disc (you can also do this on your own PC before it has a problem). To create the disc, clickStart, type system repair, select Create a System Repair Disc, and follow the prompts.

If your computer won't boot from the CD, go into its setup screen and change the boot order so that the optical or CD/DVD drive comes before the hard drive. I can't tell you exactly how to do this since it differs from one PC to another. When you first turn on the computer, look for an on-screen message telling you to press a particular key 'for setup'.

If your PC fails before you can enter setup or boot from a CD, you have a hardware problem. If you're not comfortable working inside a PC, take it to a professional.

But let's assume that the CD boots. When it does, follow the prompts. Likely the utility will tell you very soon that there's a problem, and it will ask if you want to fix the problem. You do.

If it doesn't ask you, or if the disc can't fix the issue, you'll see a menu with various options.Startup Repair and System Restore are both worth trying.

2. You Can't Access the Hard Drive

If Windows can't boot because the PC can't read the hard drive, none of the solutions above will work. But that's not the worst of it: Unless you have a very up-to-date backup (and shame on you if you don't), all of your files are locked away on a possibly dead hard drive. Secondary drives you don't boot off of, both internal and external, also can die with important data locked away on them.

If you can't access your hard drive, Recover My Files might be able to do what its name implies.

If the drive is making noises that you've never heard before, shut off the PC immediately. In that case you have only one possible solution, and it's expensive: Send the drive to a data-retrieval service. Drivesavers and Kroll Ontrack are the best known, although they're not necessarily better than smaller, cheaper companies. Expect to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars. If your drive sounds okay, however, you may be able to recover the files for only $70 with GetData's Recover My Files.

If the sick drive is the one you use to boot Windows, you'll have to remove it from the PC and access it on another computer. You can do so by making it a secondary drive in a desktop PC, or by using a SATA-USB adapter such as the Bytecc USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Adapter Kit.

The free, demo version of Recover My Files will show you which files can be recovered (almost all of them, when I tested it) and even display their contents. Once you've paid the $70 license fee, the program can copy the files to another drive. If that doesn't work, you'll need to use a retrieval service.

3. Blue Screens of Death Attack Your PC Regularly

BlueScreenView can show what Windows was doing before disaster struck.

One second you're working productively, the next you're staring at a blue screen filled with meaningless white text. If it happens occasionally, you curse, reboot, and get on with your work. If it happens regularly, you have a problem that needs fixing.

Windows 7 keeps logs of these "Stop Errors." (That's Microsoft's term; everyone else calls them "Blue Screens of Death," or BSoDs.) To view the logs and make sense of them, download and run BlueScreenView, a free, portable program by NirSoft (portablemeans you don't have to install it). The program shows you what drivers were running at the time of the crash, and highlights the likeliest suspects. If the same drivers come up from multiple crashes, you should definitely update them.

Speaking of updating drivers, you should make sure that all of them are current. SlimWare Utilities' free SlimDrivers makes this chore remarkably easy, as it scans Windows and lists which drivers need to be updated. If you register (that's free, too), it will find the drivers and run the update for you. It even offers to create a restore point before each update. Don't update all of your drivers at once, however; if you do, and one of them makes things worse, you'll have a tough time figuring out which one.

Frequent BSoDs can also be a sign of hardware problems, especially bad RAM. Although Windows 7 has its own memory-diagnostics program, I prefer the free Memtest86+, which you have to boot separately. You can download the program either as an .iso file--from which you can create a bootable CD--or as an .exe file that will install the program and its bootable operating system onto a flash drive.

4. No One Has the PC's Administrator Password

If the wrong person leaves your company in a huff, one or more PCs could be left stranded. With no one in the company knowing the password to an administrator-level account, you can't install software, change important settings, or possibly access encrypted data.

Fortunately, you can remove the password, letting you log on to that account. You do that with the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor, a bootable, text-based free program that you download as an .iso file. Double-click that file, and Windows 7 will start the process of burning it to a CD.

Sure your drivers are up-to-date? SlimDrivers can automate this otherwise time-consuming job.

Boot the CD and follow these instructions. I've put the on-screen prompts in italics. After you type your answer, press Enter.

boot: Just press Enter.

Select: [1]: Above the prompt you'll see a list of hard-drive partitions. Select the right one by typing that number.

What is the path to the registry directory?...: The default is probably correct. Just press Enter.

[1]: 1

What to do? [1] ->: 1

or simply enter the username...: Type the name of the administrator account. If you're not sure what it is, all of the account names are listed above the prompt.

Select: [q] >: 1

Select: ! - quit...: !

What to do [1]: q

About to write file(s) back...: y

New run? [n]: n

# Remove the CD and reboot.

You should now be able to log on to the administrator account without a password. For security purposes, don't forget to create a new password for the account. Just be sure to remember what it is.

5. You Think Your PC Is Infected

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware might catch malicious software that your regular antivirus program missed.

Is your computer behaving oddly, slowing down at the wrong time, or refusing to run certain programs? It could be infected with malware. What can you do about that?

If your regular antivirus program--the one you already have up and running--hasn't stopped the questionable software, it probably can't. What you need is a second opinion--and possibly a third and a fourth.

Start with the free version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, a utility with an exceptional record of finding and removing malware. Download it, install it, launch it, update the database, and then perform a full scan.

Since installing and updating a cleaning utility are tasks that the infection may interfere with, it's a good idea to follow your Malwarebytes scan with other scans that don't require an installation or even an update.

On someone else's PC, download SuperAntiSpyware Portable and copy it to a flash drive. Boot the infected PC into Safe Mode, plug in the flash drive, and run the program. Since SuperAntiSpyware.com updates the portable program every day or two, you don't need to update it before the scan.

For a fourth opinion, try the F-Secure Rescue CD. This is another .iso file from which you can burn a bootable CD. Just boot from the CD and run the scan. The program will try to update its database over the Internet. If it can't, you can download an update on another PC, put it on a flash drive, and keep that plugged in while running F-Secure on the infected PC.

6. An Important File Disappears

You've been working on a report for six weeks. You have to give the speech tomorrow. The PowerPoint presentation is beautiful. It's perfect. It's...where is it?

Maybe you just moved it to another folder. Click the Start menu, type the file's name, and see what turns up.

Can't find a file? Make sure it didn't wind up in the Recycle Bin.

Nothing? Maybe you've renamed it accidentally. Click Start, type a word that's in the presentation but not in many other files, and see if that gets better results. If it pulls up a lot of results, click See more results so that you can sort the found files by date.

No luck? Try the Recycle Bin. Maybe you deleted the file.

Dead end? Don't panic. You can always restore the file from the backup you made yesterday.

You don't back up? I bet you will now. As for the file you desperately need to find today, you'll have to use file-recovery software. Before I discuss specific programs, I need to lay down one absolute rule about using them: Until you've either recovered the file or given up, do not write to your hard drive. Every time you do so, you lower the odds of successfully retrieving the lost file.

Following this rule requires you to use portable file-recovery software. Download the utility on another PC and save it to a flash drive. Plug that drive into your PC, and launch the program from there.

The rule also means that you shouldn't restore your file to its original location. Save it to the flash drive, as well.

With luck, either of the following two utilities will be able to find and recover your missing file. First, try the free Recuva Portable. It's fast and simple, it can preview image formats, and it works reliably most of the time.

If that doesn't work, try Software Shelf's File-Rescue Plus. It costs $40, but you can recover up to five files with the free demo version. Strictly speaking, File-Rescue Plus isn't portable, but you have a work-around. Install it onto another computer, and then copy the program file, FileRescuePlus.exe, to your flash drive. After you pay the $40, use Notepad to create a file called key.ini containing nothing but the license key that Software Shelf sent you after you bought the program. Place key.ini on the flash drive, in the same folder as the program file.

Lost files and other disasters happen. You can take all the proper precautions, and something could still go horribly wrong, plunging you into a Windows nightmare. But follow these tips, and you should enjoy some sweet dreams.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/224952-1/six_windows_7_nightmares_and_how_to_fix_them.html

Windows 7 (Finally) Beats Windows XP's U.S. Desktop Share

Friendly Computers would like to share this article with you.

Someone get the party balloons and slap a big "7" on them, for Windows 7 has finally overtaken its younger brother, Windows XP, in desktop market share. For those keeping score at home or running an office betting pool, the milestone comes just under two years since the release of Windows 7, and a bit over one year since Windows 7 passed Windows Vista's desktop market share.

According to new statistics from Statcounter, Windows 7 now commands 31.71 percent of all U.S. desktops—that's based on the aggregated visitor statistics tracked across approximately three million websites during the month of April. Windows XP now takes up second place in the U.S. desktop market at 31.56 percent, with Vista trailing third at 19.07 percent. And for Apple fans only, OS X currently hovers at a desktop market share of around 14.87 percent.

Looking at the stats over the past year, Windows 7 has been eating away at the desktop share of Windows Vista and Windows XP in equal measure. The desktop share of Apple's OS X has risen slightly from April 2010's 13.24 percent, but its overall growth hasn't experience nearly the same rise of fall as its Microsoft-based brethren.

Windows XP commanded 42.51 percent of the U.S. desktop market in April 2010, and Windows Vista, 27.45 percent. Windows 7 saw half the market penetration of its present-day totals, eating up only 14.7 percent of all U.S. desktops in April of 2010.

As far as worldwide statistics go, however, Windows XP is still the operating system to beat. Although it has lost a bit of its base since the same time period last year, when the OS captured 58.56 percent of the worldwide market, Windows XP is still the most popular operating system on Earth with a total market penetration of 47.19 percent.

Windows 7's growth over the past year has been steady, but the OS still only captures 31.22 percent of the market as of April 2011's figures. Windows Vista is down to 13.24 percent, but still edging out Apple's OS X and its market share of 6.45 percent.

So how long until Windows 7 overtakes all other versions of its operating system to become top dog? Judging by its current trajectory, we can expect to see the swap-on-top to happen sometime within the next year—due to the cannibalization of Windows Vista and Windows XP by Windows 7.

Pingdom has crunched the numbers to find that Windows, in total, isn't much growing in overall market share—rather, you can think of Windows kind of like a hurricane, and the different versions of the operating system are recirculating eyewalls. That's good news for Microsoft upgrade-wise, but bad news for the company's ambitions to increase its overall Windows presence in the desktop space. Then again, since Windows captures more than 90 percent of the desktop market share to begin with, just how much higher can Microsoft realistically go?

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383347,00.asp

How to Remove Win 7 Anti-Spyware 2011 (Fake Anti-Virus Infections)

Friendly Computers found this article useful and would like to share it with you.

If your PC is infected with the Win 7 Anti-Spyware 2011 malware or something similar, you’ve come to the right place, because we’re going to show you how to get rid of it, and free your PC from the awful clutches of this insidious malware (and many others)

Win 7 Anti-Spyware 2011 is just one of many fake antivirus applications like Antivirus Live, Advanced Virus Remover, Internet Security 2010, Security Tool, and others that hold your computer hostage until you pay their ransom money. They tell you that your PC is infected with fake viruses, and prevent you from doing anything to remove them.

This particular virus goes by a lot of names, including XP Antispyware, Win 7 Antispyware, Win 7 Internet Security 2011, Win 7 Guard, Win 7 Security, Vista Internet Security 2011, and many, many others. It’s all the same virus, but renames itself depending on your system and which strain you get infected with.

The What Now?

If you aren’t familiar with this one, it’s time to take a look at the face of an awful scam. If you are infected, scroll down to the section where we explain how to remove it.

Once a PC is infected, it’ll display this very official-looking window, which pretends to scan your PC and find things that are infected, but of course, it’s all a lie.

The really crazy thing is that it pops up a very realistic looking Action Center window, but it’s actually the virus.

Removing Rogue Fake Antivirus Infections (General Guide)

There’s a couple of steps that you can generally follow to get rid of the majority of rogue antivirus infections, and actually most malware or spyware infections of any type. Here’s the quick steps:

• Try to use the free, portable version of SUPERAntiSpyware to remove the viruses.
• If that doesn’t work, reboot your PC into safe mode with networking (use F8 right before Windows starts to load)
• Try to use the free, portable version of SUPERAntiSpyware to remove the viruses.
• Reboot your PC and go back into safe mode with networking.
• If that doesn’t work, and safe mode is blocked, try running ComboFix. Note that I’ve not yet had to resort to this, but some of our readers have.
• Install MalwareBytes and run it, doing a full system scan.
• Reboot your PC again, and run a full scan using your normal Antivirus application (we recommend Microsoft Security Essentials).
• At this point your PC is usually clean.

Those are the rules that normally work. Note that there are some malware infections that not only block safe mode, but also prevent you from doing anything at all. We’ll cover those in another article soon, so make sure to subscribe to How-To Geek for updates (top of the page).

Removing Win 7 Anti-Spyware 2011

Download a free copy of MalwareBytes, copy it to a thumb drive, and then install it on the infected PC and run through a scan. You might have better luck doing this in Safe Mode.

You may have better luck installing MalwareBytes first, if the virus will let you. In my case, it did not. When I scanned through the first time using SUPERAntiSpyware, it detected the viruses and removed the files just fine.

At this point, you should hopefully have a clean system. Make sure to install Microsoft Security Essentials, and don’t be fooled by these viruses again.

Can’t Open Any Applications After Deleting the Virus?

The next problem was that once the virus was removed, you couldn’t open anything—in fact, I still wasn’t even able to install MalwareBytes. Hopefully you have better luck.

Why couldn’t I open anything? Because the virus had rewritten the registry to force all applications to open the virus instead—which meant you couldn’t even open the registry editor to fix the problem. This problem might have been avoided had I properly completed the scan, but I interrupted it before it was done.

On a normal PC, there’s a registry key under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT that specifies what happens when you double-click on an executable file (*.exe) – but on a virus-infected system, this value is rewritten with the virus executable. That’s how it prevents you from opening anything.

To fix the problem, I exported a clean registry file from another PC, and did a little extra hacking to it, and problem solved! All you have to do is download, extract, copy the .reg file to the infected PC, and double-click it to add the information into the registry.

Download the Fixing Malware Appliction Won’t Open Registry Hack

Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/57837/how-to-remove-win-7-anti-spyware-2011-fake-anti-malware-infections/

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Tips

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Service pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 has been out for a bit now and perhaps you have installed it. If you are happy with it, I have a tip for you. But then again maybe you are not so happy with it.  In that case, I also have a tip for you.

Free up some space by removing Windows 7 SP1 backup files

When you install Windows 7 SP1, backup files are created to be used in case you have problems with the update and want to get rid of it. These files may take up as much as several GB of space and eventually you may want to delete them. It may not make much difference if you have a terabyte drive but these days many operating system volumes are fairly small. If you have been using SP1 for a while and everything seems to be working properly, here is how to remove the backup files.

Note that once these files are removed, you won’t be able to uninstall SP1. As a matter of good practice, make an image of your system before installing service packs so that you can have an alternate way to return to your original setup.

Use the system tool Disk Cleanup to remove backups

One way to remove the backup files is to use the Windows Disk Cleanup accessory. There are various ways to open Disk Cleanup in Windows 7 but an easy path is to enter “clean” (without quotes) in the Start menu Search bar and select “Disk Cleanup” from the list. You’ll have to go through several steps (see this link for pictures).

1. Open Disk Cleanup
2. Click the Button “Clean up system files”
3. If necessary, select the drive or volume where your operating system is located (normally C:)
4. In the dialog box, click the tab “Disk Cleanup”
5. In the list that opens, find “Service pack backup files’ and put a check by it
6. Click “OK”
7. Click “Delete files”

Use the command line to remove the backups

If you are a command-line aficionado, there is a quicker way to delete the backup files. Open a command prompt with administrator privileges and enter

   DISM /online /cleanup-Image /spsuperseded

How to uninstall Windows 7 service pack 1 from the Control Panel

If SP1 makes you unhappy for one reason or the other, you can uninstall it (assuming you didn’t apply the tip above first).

1. Go to Control Panel-Programs-Programs and Features. The easy way to get there is to enter “uninstall” in theStart- Search bar and choose ”Uninstall a program” from the Control Panel list
2. Click “View installed updates”
3. Click "Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB 976932)"
4. Click “Uninstall”

How to uninstall Windows 7 SP1 from the command line

Open a command prompt with administrator privileges and enter

   wusa /uninstall /kb:976932

Don’t you just love how simple the command line makes things?

Source: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/windows-7-service-pack-1-tips.htm