March 2008 - Posts

The Long Awaited Vista SP1 Has Arrived...
Sat, Mar 22 2008 12:55

 On Tuesday March 18th, Microsoft finally released Vista SP1 in its final form. SP1 contains a year of updates and improves on some of Vista's features the public has complained about. At the moment it is available through both Windows Update as an optional download or through the Microsoft Download Center as a standalone download. In the middle of April it will become a mandatory automatic download from Windows Update.  There are a couple of issues with the download and installation that have been discovered since release, so if you want to wait until the download bugs are gone, best wait until April.

 

The download issues that have been found, include a problem with the updated hardware (device) drivers that Vista SP1 needs  (the software that makes each hardware device work).  Windows Update is set up to identify those specific hardware devices that require an updated driver, and it then downloads and installs most of those updates to your computer, prior to installing SP1.  However, you may have hardware that does not have an  update yet or does not have an update available for Vista.  In this case SP1 will not appear in the option list for Windows Update until April.  Here is a list of hardware that may not have an updated driver yet.  Some of your hardware may stop working after SP1 is installed and to determine if one of your hardware devices is affected you can open the device manager and look for one or more yellow exclamation marks. (to open device manager, right click on 'My Computer' on your desktop with your mouse, choose 'properties', then the 'hardware' tab and click the button for 'device manager'). More information is available in KB948187.

 

There is a list of prerequisite updates that are needed on your PC before SP1 will download and install in KB937287. After you review the installed updates on your PC in Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs and find you are still unable to download and install Vista SP1, please refer to KB948343, for possible causes and solutions. There was an issue with a February update for Windows installation software. This is one of the prerequisite updates for installing Vista  SP1 and may still remain an issue for a few people. Check your list of installed updates to make sure you have KB937287 installed and if not, please go to the manual installation instructions at the bottom of the page.

 

Another issue with the installation of Vista SP1 occurs when there are inconsistencies in the registry of that particular system.  If your installation of SP1 fails then there is a small program you can download called CheckSur which will fix most issues. Before Windows Update downloads and installs Vista SP1 it will check for  inconsistencies in the registry will download and run CheckSur,  if it finds any.  If your installation fails and CheckSur is not automatically downloaded you can find instructions for a manual download and install of  CheckSur at the bottom of the page. 

 

You may be surprised to find that after Vista SP1 is installed, you are asked to re-activate Windows Vista. This does not happen to everyone. Among those affected are those who have made hardware changes, or have updated their software device drivers, prior to installing SP1. For added security, Vista is very sensitive to any hardware change and if the above circumstances occur, you will be asked to re-activate Windows Vista after SP1 is installed. This is expected behaviour of Vista. Some people have found that when they install SP1 they are unable to re-activate Windows Vista over the internet, but must phone the activation center. This also is expected behaviour under some circumstances.  Please refer to the information in KB947519. There is also a discussion of this topic in the MS Genuine Advantage Forum. 

 

It happened with previous OS's and now again with Vista, when a service pack was installed. Existing third-party  programs conflict with the service pack, resulting in a reduction in function. You will find a list in KB935796.  As I said above, there is no need to install SP1 yet because it will become an automatic download in April.  Some of the conflicts and installation issues may be solved by then giving you a smoother installation process.  If you want to add the service pack now then please note the above information and read the associated KB articles before installing it.

by Dorothy Gosling | with no comments

Filed under: General, Software, Vista, Desktop, Computer, Laptop, Windows

Why Do I Have To Patch Windows - Shouldn't It Have Been Made Secure with Windows 3.0?
Tue, Mar 11 2008 17:57

Recently I was asked this question : "Why do we have to patch Windows all the time? Couldn't Microsoft have built a secure OS from day 1 for Windows 3.0, Windows 95 or any of the other OS's so it doesn’t have to be patched?" ...

by Dorothy Gosling | with no comments

Filed under: Protection, security, Windows

So You Think Your PC Is Secure...Is It?
Tue, Mar 11 2008 15:14

So you think your PC is secure. You have a resident Antivirus program, an Antispyware program and a firewall. You have Microsoft Updates set on ‘auto’ so that your copy of Windows is updated automatically as soon as one is available. You have set up all your third-party programs to notify you when any update becomes available. You have added all the recommended tools that don’t conflict, for example: IE-Spyad and SpywareBlaster to your PC.  You have UAC turned ON in your new copy of Vista.  Now you say “phew! My PC is secure so I now can do anything I want and be protected from all the nasties on the internet.”  

 

 So you search, you surf, you chat, you play games, and you visit websites at random and one day your computer slows down, getting slower and slower by the hour until it is impossible to do any of the things that you could do a few days ago. You can’t understand why, you know all of your protection is up-to-date, so you couldn’t possibly have a malware infection, could you?     

 

Well, I hate to give you the bad news, but yes your computer now has the symptoms of a malware infection.  You will have been infected by a brand new malware, probably because you clicked on that banner ad by mistake yesterday, you downloaded a new piece of software from one of the big name sites or from an unfamiliar site, you took a quick peak at that casino page or restricted page you know you shouldn’t be looking at, you opened that email attachment and the windows installer started, or maybe you automatically clicked “allow” (as you always do) when either UAC in Vista, or your third-party firewall asked if you should allow or deny a connection. So many different ways to be infected with brand new malware.   You expect your AV company to have definitions to prevent every malware infection. Ask yourself how the AV companies get the definitions that they use to update your AV product daily. The only way they develop the definitions is AFTER some poor souls become victims of new malware, just like you have been now.  The AV company will then obtain samples of the new infection and develop definitions to prevent and remove the new malware, and download  those new definitions to your PC.  The moral of this story is that the very best and latest protection is not always good enough to prevent a PC from becoming infected.    The only thing that I know of that will prevent a PC from malware infections 99.9% of the time, is all of the above methods together with "conscious thought" and "awareness". Yes, I said “conscious thought”, in other words caution and awareness of the risks of using the Internet.  Every PC user must be aware of the methods the scumware/malware writers use to infect the average user.  As well as thought, your sixth sense can play a part in keeping your PC safe. Whether you use the Internet with a browser, email, chat or other Internet enabled program, it is important to notice things that are out of the ordinary, sometimes it's just a feeling you get that something is bad.  For example:

• clicking a link and finding yourself on a page that you didn’t expect.
• Visiting a familiar website and landing on an unfamiliar page.
• Clicking a link that starts an automatic download that you didn’t expect.
• Following a link to a familiar site that doesn’t look exactly like it should.
• Your PC starts to download something that you didn’t initiate.
• You receive a file transfer that you weren’t aware was being transferred.

 

   So if you want to be almost completely safe on the internet, you must think.  No automatic program can keep you safe 100% of the time.  Be aware when you are using your PC of any and all odd occurrences and immediately suspect anything that is out of the ordinary. If you arrive on an unexpected website, never click any links.  If something attempts to download to your PC without you expecting it, stop the download. 

 

The bottom line to maintaining a clean computer is to use your head. If anything unexpected happens, get off the internet and scan your computer with each of your protection programs. If your computer starts to slow down, get some help at one of the antispyware forums to clean it.   In this day and age every infected computer should be cleaned by someone who knows what the malware does to a PC because many things can be left behind on the infected PC because of the nature of the malware.  Many people have been left with infected files after cleaning their own computer which have later caused them serious problems.  Be cautious, even suspicious when surfing the internet, you never know where the latest malware is hidden!

 

by Dorothy Gosling | with no comments

Filed under: Infected PC, Vista, Computer, Protection, security, AV, Firewall, malware, Windows, Safe Surfing For Children, AS