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Do's and don't of Windows!

PostPosted: Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:01 am
by BBOSAK2143
Have been hitting problems all week with this stuff and to help others that have to have Windows on their OS's, I though maybe I can start a little post here and maybe people can get great advice off of it and the more experienced can add to it.

XP Users a very important issue for large hard drives. Now if you are going to load an XP system make sure you do not try to use the entire disk and if is partitioned do not make the larger usable. Recommended partition size should be no larger than 50gb.

Known issue with Avast Anti-Virus and Avira. These 2 tested and very difficult to remove from the system. I had to surgically remove Avast from Windows 7 last night through the registry of the ole lady's computer. Avast did the same to my XP version and had to be surgically removed from the registry. I do not recommend those pieces of software for those 2 systems.

Ad-Aware, nice piece of software 3 years ago, upon removal in XP it wipes your Add/Remove programs out. Not so friendly those folks anymore as they try to be more like the larger companies offering complete service. The one in all protector, yeah great!

Zone Alarm, maybe on Win 7 is alright but upon removal in XP it totally wipes out your internet connection if you are on wireless as I am! I guess, if you do not want to buy their products that is price you pay! Of course, thanks to them and oh so kindly, I have to re-install! So I figured this was my very important warning to avoid Zone Alarm on XP as it is just not working correctly. Upon download takes forever to install, not fun at all!

Now remember people none of this is meant to bash any company, I simply want to warn you about issues and save some time. These issues cost me a full day of working on the computers. So if I can help you avoid this, I will! Also all software tested was free versions. I have no results for paid versions of this products. So this is to help all those out here that are broke or just can not afford software at the moment. More to come as have to have this computer loaded correctly and the ole lady's running tip top real soon too!

Re: Do's and don't of Windows!

PostPosted: Fri Oct 18, 2013 11:42 am
by Xanayoshi
That's not quite right.

Yes most anti-virus are extremely intrusive, they are supposed to be I guess, I don't really go online with Windows but...

I see lots of Seagates and it is definitely not true there is a 50 gb limit.

Since you have XP, you can run a slow format on the drive with the XP install disc(takes a while with a strong H) Then you can either let it install or repartition the drives seperately, or shrink the XP to where you want it in Windows.

Still, your drive is probably corrupt. Do you hear any clicks?

Are they Barracudas? I mean, I'm sure they are, anyhosen, there are firmware issues with these as well, so even if you have no symptoms it can still be problematic.

Re: Do's and don't of Windows!

PostPosted: Fri Oct 18, 2013 1:14 pm
by pam
XP is very old.
You probably may have used fat filesystem instead of ntfs. Good luck feeling intelligent about defragmenting. Looks all geeky, doesnt it. Cant remember whether stock XP actually shipped with ntfs.
Almost every system with a dual core+ cpu has new bios and hardware for win vista++ and linux.

Win 7 was OK.
Win 8 is awesome.
I hope win 8.1 is better.
Ofcourse Win only serves a purpose you'd want thats not there in linux.

As far as anti virus is concerned. I know they use it on humans. Not sure when was the last time i even used the word 'anti-virus' when talking computers. :baa

Re: Do's and don't of Windows!

PostPosted: Fri Oct 18, 2013 5:04 pm
by BBOSAK2143
Pam, I do not know how I ever tolerated that OS to begin with???? At present it is a hackers paradise. Not so far as anyone being a hacker on there, but getting hacked!!!! IE8 is not supported crashes every few minutes. Firefox will not support some Java extensions. Man, I have entered the Lion's Den on this one! If I did not need a job so bad, I would have called it quits soon as Windows was brought into the equation to do what they want to do! Sorry, Windows is not something you use for this kind of work, Linux is or Oracle! I can not really discuss the job, but these are my beliefs towards it! Now if I am to do other kind of business on the net, fine Windows will do, but not this! I guess is why am fighting so hard for it as enjoy challenges!!!! I did get Internet Security and Anti-virus to be actually functional. I would not count on it as far as I could throw my entire house! Software suggestions were not the greatest at all! Have sent another email to support and am hoping they just do not tell me to forget about the job! Have been busting it to get it! Believe me if I could find a job with Linux, would be there in a flash. Sure would have to load a more reliable than my own(less loaded) but would gladly do it! Of course the only one would depend of for serious work would be Ultimate. I blew to many things on my OS, maybe next time or after will get it right? Still even being a little off, beats the pants off any Windows OS have seen. Simply gets things done and looks awesome, of course that is with my Theme!!! Can't help it, I guess I just caught the right looks this time around!!! Just wish I could get going on this job, then return to having free time! Anyway, most software on XP since is way way too old, is not going to function so well! Wish me luck, got some more ideas to try so will catch you in a bit. Just hope something will be here to help others as, this employer uses XP, VISTA, 7 AND 8. 8 gets me dizzy with that sidewinder deal!!!! Us old folks have a tough time with stuff like that!!!! Just kidding, just drives me batty and get a bit lost with it! Have not run it long enough to give blow by blow on it, so will not say anymore.

Re: Do's and don't of Windows!

PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2013 12:46 am
by pam
AVG was best years ago when i tried it. May still be good. Some say it has a lot of adware stuff.
Many say comodo is very good now. http://www.comodo.com/
With the above 2 you are pretty much ready to roll.

If you want to go at a more discrete level you can try netsh firewall, which is something like iptables for linux. It a granular approach to handling rules for IP addresses. So it wont be for the faint of heart.
http://serverfault.com/questions/207620 ... f-iptables

Another discrete level of monitoring, tagging and blocking ip-addresses would be to use wireshark, provided your networking is strong. There is excellent documentation and free ebooks for wireshark.. http://www.wireshark.org/

Re: Do's and don't of Windows!

PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2013 12:29 pm
by BBOSAK2143
Nodz32? Would love to know about it! Problem am facing right now is IE8 is a derelict and crashing once you click on active X links. Mozilla and its Java plugins gave up on me after a few times up on this testing site for this perspective employer. I emailed what was happening and the reply was to click on active X soon as it comes up and believe me, I tried that somewhere around 20x. I am starting to believe whatever installed with that free software AVG and MS Essentials had a bug in it as am bombarded with links to download all kinds of video players, in which I do not need! I have Media Player 9, Real Player, Adobe Flash and Uplayer. Was very ironic the site that came up, as it was a deadringer for Adobe! Identical, then it will offer you some ultimate video player for a trial version. Amazing forgot what terrible things happen on XP! Even Vista was not as terrifying. Win7 is terrifying but nowhere near XP!!!! . There has to be what everyone calls a virus in there. Now in Windows, everyone is led to believe that, the real thing usually is some small registry entry that is wrecking everything! Been there before as remember have used that OS for way too many years. I am kicking myself I did not have the guts years ago to use Solaris or Linux. Imagine what I might know now if that were the case??? I was a scared little rabbit just bouncing around and swearing at Windows every day, what a fool I was!!!! I found on Linux, that does not happen. I might get a little upset, but is mainly because I lack the knowledge. Windows for the most part had enough knowledge to run it, still for me it would fail when it came down to working with videos! I could convert videos and burn DVDs all day on Linux, but on Windows, 3 and crash bam boom reboot! Wasted time on that OS, but still when it comes to employment if need be will suffer with it! So am looking for ideas, maybe some hack to get Explorer 9 going on XP or just some site that does a free virus scan to give me a good area to start. Registry is quite long on Windows, when you have a starting point you're good, when not your SOL(Sorry Out of Luck)! Down the road with wireshark as still no pro at it pam. I am so poor with networking!!! In fact after I had uninstalled Zone Alarm the other day on XP, I was left without an internet connection! I looked through so many things and could not fix it! I had to reload! Spent half the morning doing that yesterday. Get all this junk running again, get all but 2 downloads for that job, then Firefox gives up using Java!!!! Fit to be tied on this one! Just going to have to wait til later as have some chores to do before can mess with that again! Maybe by then will have some ideas and hoping someone here has a good idea! Love to know about that program Blackwolf, please send a link so can learn!!! Really appreciate all the help and support here more than I ever got anywhere my entire life on the internet!!!!

Re: Do's and don't of Windows!

PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2013 7:18 pm
by BBOSAK2143
Going to give node32 a shot pretty soon when it downloads, sounds good! Tried the Panda anti-virus claimed I had 3 files took them out, then still nothing does the same stuff! Tries to download video players to me get some stupid popups and active X still freezing on page I need to go to. XP has more holes than swiss cheese! No response to emails sent today to this perspective employer, not a great sign. Still going to try as need a job badly and this neighborhood am in is looking worse every day! Can not even get a job at Mickey D's! Is insane. I mean you would think with what I know would be worth something, but guess out here is not what you know it's who you know. Of course for me is nil these days as have not lived here my entire life! Oh well, will post back and let you know what node32 does for that OS! Forgot to mention tried Explorer 9 but of course refused. Thought maybe a server version would do, guessed wrong! Still open to ideas if anyone has any???

Re: Do's and don't of Windows!

PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2013 11:37 pm
by BBOSAK2143
No go on No2 til that frail OS can get this job! Is a real sweet program is getting me closer but XP takes time to realize what is happening! Not big on doing things this way at all! Still have to do what you have to do when you lack the cash! AVG and MS Security Essentials are a joke and everyone knows that fact! First time I ever used MS Security Essentials it crashed, next time called itself a threat, then finally it woke up and ran at about 1/2 reliability. Of course in those days Ad-Aware really did work along with Zone Alarm. Anyone looking at those utilities to do the job these days, has to be insane! All the toolbars they dump off on your system if your are dumb enough to hit express install will devastate your system in no time flat! I always custom on Windows, learned that when I first started using XP! Still these parasites will put in little surprises even though you unchecked the box! Eset found a couple of those and removed them along with some other hijacker. Still not letting me install the active X yet but am working on it. Every site need to be at is put into the trusted, but there is still something holding it back! Beat out today, perspective employer's technical teams advice was to click on the active x message quickly! Insane isn't it??? I sent a few pics what is happening, maybe during the night they will realize what is going on and am not a novice. This is a hard problem going on, not something easy and simple. My OS giving a little hassle too, guess it got jealous of XP slamming me, so it had to kick in a bit! Another removal problem! Seems clamav is orphaned, tried to remove as to get new one, but will not uninstall all the way! When it rains it pours! For tonight I quit! Will just have to take care of it all tomorrow. Thanks for advice and I sure love programs like Eset that work! Hard to come by these days in Windows!!!! Too many people want to be rich and hardly care what they do to get there!!!!

Re: Do's and don't of Windows!

PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 9:47 am
by BBOSAK2143
Hope no one thinks am foaming at the mouth on all this! Just figure to help for others is all. Anyway Eset is still hard at work, one awesome anti-virus program that really scans, not the 5 sec, you think I worked, no takes time and finds problems. Of course XP is sluggish, so this stuff takes time! Now everyone knows I simply can not have an OS that is basic and looks like out of the box. Sprucing up is always needed. I am not going to look at a generic desktop! So below I have some pics of what it looks like now, not bad least more acceptable than out of the box! Eset just completed have a pic of that and remember all those have been deleted. Updates working again, hoping next boot will get me into that site! Also going to give Eset a shot on the laptop on Win7. Yes is not a recommended version I have, but when I get money rest assured I will purchase this program for Windows, since it really works!!!! Does not pretend like the others that were recommended to me by this perspective employer. Anyway here are the pics more to come when time permits! Thanks once again Blackwolf, you always prove why your name appears just below TheeMahn's on install of Ultimate! Knowing how you are is a well deserved position!!!! Can never thank you enough, you're a true blessing to us all!

Re: Do's and don't of Windows!

PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 7:54 am
by BBOSAK2143
Very Important!!!! The last page I wrote I changed the setting in Eset Nods32 to delete, bad mistake!!! Do not do that, since those are crucial files that Nods32 uses to repair/dump viruses! Since I made that error I was forced to boot into my OS and from there delete the program file, simple way since you can not delete or remove in Safe Mode of XP! If that is the only system you have, I recommend using a flash drive with Linux and doing the same, since this is the quickest way. Next remember how I talked about CCleaner, well that is your friend when doing something like that since it will remove those registry entries! Is my favorite kind of utility in my predicament since is free! Next there was another problem which am still working out! From Wine we all know that Net 4.0 does not work. Turns out it installed on XP but was not usable by a few other programs. So the lesser of the evils was to uninstall Net 4.0 and go to Net 3.5 which leaves me with only one program to compensate for. I was able to sign into the site after all these viruses were removed, plus another update to MS Essentials. So am most of the way there and their technical department is curious on how I accomplished all this. Main credit belongs to Blackwolf!!! Without him leading me to Eset Nods32 would still be trying to dump the viruses! Still thank you very deeply for all you have help me with Blackwolf!!! Xan, was reading your post missed it last few times. Now I am using a 500gb Seagate which is not perfect but works good. We have to remember XP never saw those kind of sizes so is ill prepared for it! What would happen if you would format with XP you would simply wind up waiting for hours, partitioning good luck! That size gets misread as the above statement holds true! The simple way, as I did it was to format and partition about 50 gigs with Ubuntu's gparted. The rest was left unscathed/not partitioned/no filesystem so XP would load up. Does well that way. Now if I want to use the other 450, I can simply put in a Win7 disk and format/partition then quit. Of course on a dual boot OS we then run into a hassle. Since ubuntu will then find that 128mb file Win7 uses which is in-between partitions, on the boot selecting Win7/Vista(still have one!) then puts it into Windows selection menu in grub, then the selection reads earlier windows, when selected just reboots! Tried this earlier in the week so know it well. Now I need XP to come up on grub, not go into a reboot so for now leaving the other part unscathed til I can find the page that extends the grub. Windows is just not so great at grub and working together with Linux does not happen so easily either!!!! Anyway am off to work out this Net 3.5 deal! Has to be some service pack for it, you know Windows everything has a service pack! Can not own Windows without it!!!!! They simply never are prepared for change, which I will always say is not good! Also like to thank either MIcro and Pam for earlier suggestions about Opera browser. Simply brilliant! XP users forget Explorer and Firefox since they will not configure the new java version correctly! Use Opera and surf to your heart's content! Just remember get Eset Nods32 protection first! That is the one that works, others zippidy!!!!