Microsoft Windows PC Resources on the Web

This is a collection of PC programs, utilities and Web sites that I have found usefull. It is not complete, but since I informally maintain many different PC's at many different locations, I figured I'd build this page so that I don't have to constantly remember where to find that whatchamacallit.

I've added a prevention section (last updated 06Oct2005)

Prevention

• First, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. (I've tried to list these suggestions in order of ease of implementation.)
• Keep Windows up to date. Turn on Automatic updating. Microsoft's instructions on how to turn on automatic update. The time between security patch release, and the malware which takes advantage of unpatched systems has become remarkably short. Microsoft's security updates are not perfect and they can break some aspects of the way your computer works, but in general the problem introduced by the patch is far less painful than the problem generated by the security hole the patch fixes. The following web sites from Microsoft deals with the broader scope of Microsoft Security And this web site from Microsoft deals with other specifics for protecting your Microsoft Windows computer.
• Keep your Anti-Virus software up to date. Do not let your subscription to new definitions lapse, and set the definitions update to automatically download and install the new definitions. This is really a no-brainer and I'm appalled by the number of people that do not follow this. Yes, you've got to spend money to keep your Microsoft Windows computer safe.
• Keep any other security related software up to date - Firewalls and Anti-Spyware programs.
• Use an alternative web browser. Don't use Internet Explorer! Really. Use Mozilla's Firefox, or some of the other alternative browsers. Additionally you may want to "hide" Internet Explorer (IE) so that you or anybody else using your computer does not inadvertently use it. You can do this by deleteing the visible shortcuts or icons on the desktop. You cannot uninstall Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and you would be very unhappy if you did succeed, so don't try to un-install IE.
• Set the security on Internet Explorer to maximum - In particular, force all ActiveX controls to prompt you for installation, running, scripting, etc.You will occasionally need to use IE for some web-site that requires it, so you need to limit the possible damage by preventing ActiveX technology from installing and running. You'll be quite surprised at how many websites you visit with IE use these essentially unncessary little beasts. This site contains a full description of all of the IE Security Zones settings.
• Do not use Microsoft's free email client Outlook Express - use Mozilla's Thunderbird email client. Microsoft has done a huge amount of work to improve the security of this program but because it is the "big target" and it uses ActiveX technology, avoid it - besides "Thunderbird" is better.
• Do not use AOL IM (AIM) or Microsoft Messenger for Instant Messageing - these IM clients allow ActiveX controls and various other problem technologies to invade your computer. Use GAIM. It's not as full featured and flashy as the market leaders, but it works and it's much safer.
• Click the [x] in the top right corner of an unexpected web window to close it. Don't click any other button or item within the window. Learn what "social engineering" is - Malware writers try to fool you into opening their program, or clicking on and opening their email. If you don't know who the email is from, don't open it. If you know who it is from open it only if you either were expecting an email from them, or you know the subject could not be faked. This technique of fooling the target into doing something they ordinarily wouldn't is called "social engineering". Here are some famous exmaples:
• An email that came with the subject "I love you". The attachment was called love-letter-for-you.txt.vbs. A large number of people opened it. There are now over 82 variants of the "love letter" exploit.
• An email that arrives with the subject "Anna Kournikova Pics". The attachment looks like it is a picture of an athletic young woman, the tennis player who was easy on the eyes, Anna Kournikova. In fact the attachment is not what it seems and the users who clicked on it to see the picture had their computer infected.
• A web browser window designed to look like a windows error message pops up on your screen and says "You have Spyware" and offers you a chance to get rid of it. If you click OK. You've just agreed to have some unknown software run on your machine - possibly forever.
• Free software should be regarded with deep suspicion. Free utilities to fix your computer, free toolbars to "help" you search the web, free whatever to help you do anything - all of it should be very carefully checked. If it offering to take care of spyware - check Spyware Warrior or sites like it for information on spyware cures that are worse than the disease. Almost nothing is really free. File sharing software (P2P apps) are particularly bad. Avoid them. There are some exceptions to the avoid Free software rule, one is "Open Source" software (community developed software that you can get the source or code for, examine and compile it yourself). Some examples are software like Linux, or software from GNU, Mozilla, etc. There are other pieces of free software that appear to be safe but you should always ask your favorite geek for their experience with that free software you're thinking about installing.
• Create and use a non-administrator type user account at all times except when you are installing software. This is especially true if you have children or other naive or careless users of your machine. Use a password on your adminstrator account so that no one but you can install software.
• Find an easy way to do regular backups. Backups should be done to some media that can be moved away from your computer. CD or DVD writers or external hard drives are not expensive. Microsoft Windows has software included to do backups. There are numerous "third party" solutions to backups. My favorites are imaging systems like Acronis "True Image" or Symantec's "Norton Ghost" which would let you recover from a complete disaster in a few easy steps. The hardest part is setting up the system, the hardware, the software and the schedule, to do a backup regularly. Whatever system you pick, it has to be easy, meaning it requires very little further thought, doesn't take much time, and allows you to walk away while it finishes. Even better would be a system that does the backup on a schedule, un-attended. If you don't do the backup then it does you no good. Remember you do not want a system that erases your most recent backup before you complete another.
• Finally - Move away from Microsoft Windows - It's a numbers game, it has nothing to do with Microsoft being bad or good or some other moral values judgment, it is simply a matter of practicality - because Microsoft Windows is used by the majority of computer users on the Internet, hackers target it first and foremost. If you're tired of all this security related tweaking and work, get an Apple PC with OS X (ten) or an inexpensive PC with a free or low cost distribution of Linux. (See Linux.org's list of desktop vendors or build your own. This is particularly true if all you do is email and surf the web. These 2 types of systems are far less likely to suffer from the mind numbing effects of malware. I'm not alone in this recomendation, Walt Mossberg, a respected Wall Street Journal Technology colomnist, has recommended not using Microsoft Windows This does not mean they are completely free of the problem, but the numbers of malware type problems are a factor of 100 to 1000 less. If you want to try a Linux system without doing any harm or anything complicated on your own machine, I highly recommend Knoppix. This is a Linux (Debian) based system that boots and runs entirely from CD (or DVD), it does not install on your machine. It is an excellent way to experiment with Linux and see if you like it, see what it's all about, and see how easy it really is. Another distribution of Linux that is getting a great deal of press on how easy it is to install and use is Ubuntu Linux I have not tried this myself yet (I use Red Hat Linux for most of my work) but I expect that I'll be trying it on the next machine I build. If you realize that doing your work is more important that fixing your computer - get away from Microsoft Windows. It can be done, it is productive, and it can be fun.

• Basic Rules for PC Problems Diagnosis:

  1. Listen carefully to what has been changed. Ask about both Hardware and Software!

  2. Check the basics:

     • Always check that everything is plugged in correctly!
     • Is there enough memory? (use mem/c at DOS prompt)
     • Is there enough Hard Disk space?
  3. Always bring a DOS boot disk, a basic utilities disk, and DOS based Anti-virus software.
     • On the Boot disk:
       1. System, command.com
       2. Edit and Qbasic
       3. Format
       4. FDISK
     • On the Basic Utilities Disk:
       1. MSD.exe (Microsoft's Diagnostics)
       2. Mem.exe (Microsoft's Memory viewer) or some other DOS based memory viewer. (Central Point Software's MI)
     • On the AntiVirus Disk: See the separate section on Antivirus software.
     • Other potentially useful software:
       • CPU Test I haven't tried this yet.
       • Configuration Test(Shareware) This program does seem to indicate some information about the L1 and L2 Cache configurations, and does a nice job of looking at memory timings. It does not seem to correctly report the increased L1 cache of the Intel P55C (Pentium with MMX).
       • SysChk. (Shareware) This program does not seem to indicate the processor speed correctly.
       • Symantec's Norton Utilites for DOS, version 8.0 (Commercial) The Sysinfo utility is not great, but the SI rating is a fairly good, and simple, benchmark of system performance. (However, the version I tried may have trouble with very quick machines, as I ran it on a P133 with a Seagate ST31240A and despite values of ~400 for the processor and ~140 for the disk the overall SI was ~90 which was way below an old 486 systems ~140 despite the 486 system's individual CPU and Disk performance indicies being significantly less that the P133.) It also comes with a disk defragmenter/optimizer called Speedisk. There are many other utilities bundled in this commercial package
       • Wintune from Windows Magazine. Although these are Windows (3.1x, 95, NT) products, I've tried the Win3.1x product (Wintune 2.0) and it seems to be well behaved, and informative.

  4. Hardware issues

     • My guess is that the number one hardware problem, besides obvious outright failure of a device, is a resource (IRQ or I/O port or Memory location) conflict. Plug and Play BIOSs and Win95 are supposed to help with this, but quite a bit of hardware is not PnP or running Win95. This is one of the top reasons to upgrade to Windows 95 in my humble opinion (IMHO). Win95 is not perfect, but it is much much better at managing hardware resources correctly. It's almost miraculous in it's ability to handle the myriad different devices that can be hooked up to a PC. (As much as I hate to say good things about a Microsoft product.) You do pay a price in boot speed, but I think it's worth it.

  5. Software issues

     What does the error message say? If there is no error message, then:
     • Viruses can be insidious. Machines that are behaving strangely or inconsistently should be checked for viruses first. Use an up-to-date scanner! (Not more than one month old.)
       • Robert Chu's Anti-Virus page. A nice, up to date, collection of Anti-Virus resources on the Web.
       • McAfee's Antivirus Products
       • Symantec's Norton AntiVirus I especially like their update/upgrade policies.
       • Dr. Solomon's Antivirus Toolkit. Dr. Solomon's also seems to have a good Virus Center where you can get guides, FAQ's and more. I particularly like their online searchable Virus Encyclopedia which I find more informative than either Symantec's (aka Norton's) or McAfee's information included with their own commercial products. If knowledge is power, Dr Solomon's looks powerfull. Dr. Solomon's is Jerry Pournelle's favorite. I haven't used it yet. (Jerry Pournelle is a Science Fiction writer, and also writes an opinion column for Byte Magazine. I've always enjoyed reading his column. He focuses on what he has used and his likes and dislikes thereof.)
       • Data Fellows' F-Prot Professional Anti-Virus software. (DOS based, and recommended on Robert Chu's page.) Data Fellows also maintains an online searchable Virus Information Database which looks excellent. (I found the information on the Tremor virus fascinating reading.)
       • IRIS Software's Antivirus (I've never used it, but Dell seems to favor it.)
       • IBM's AntiVirus Software (I've never used it.)
     • Memory problems. Are you sure you have enough memory?
     • Incompatible DLLs! In all Windows (3.1x, 95, NT) products, and even in DOS (with runtime libraries) these software components may have been changed from the original installation by a subsequent installation of another, probably unrelated, program. The management of these software components by Microsoft's OSs are poor to say the least. Furthermore developers are not always aware of the problems their newer or older versions of these components can cause, and if they are aware, they may not care, or may not be able to do anything about the problems the components they install will cause. Even Microsoft's developers violate the rules, and they should know better. To read more about this issue and some of the things you can do to detect and resolve this problem read the following Brian Livingston's Window Manager columns at InfoWorld:
       ``DLL madness and utilities.'' which describes FindDups, a utility to help identify and resolve this problem.
       For more details on the problem, also read the 4 part series starting on September 2, 1996:
       ``DLL Hell''.
       ``More DLL Hell''. This column also describes FINDEXE, a utility for identifying which DLL's specific programs use.
       ``Renegade DLLs''. (My title for this column is: The road to DLL Hell is paved by Microsoft...)
       ``Buy it now, we'll fix it later.'' And finally, is there a solution?

       For a little extra information on Bill's Way, read ``How Microsoft disables rivals' Internet software'' just for the information on Microsoft's DLL shenanigans.

     • Win95 Registry It's possible that your Win95 registry is cluttered with nonsense. Here is an article describing possible symptoms and the free Microsoft utility RegClean.
       ``RegClean 4.1 could solve problems with conflicting apps''.