Some Notes on the Machines

Another new one, looking quite good so far:

http://www.freefixer.com/

This may be the best of all, it seems to have more ability than CodeStuff Starter and many others:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

Mark Russinovich is involved, which speaks very well for it too.

try this:

http://licensing.symantec.com

Here is a very good one:

http://www.superantispyware.com/portablescanner.html

On SBS, and with more than 20 stations, it is much better overall to run VIPRE in SQL mode.

1. Install Microsoft SQL Server Express, 2005 or 2008, if not already installed.
2. Install Microsoft SQL Management Studio Express, of the same version, if it was not installed with SQL server.
3. In SQL Studio, create a database within an SQL instance  — either an existing instance or a new one — called VIPRE.
4. Create an administrative user for connection to the SQL server.
5. In the VIPRE console configuration, under Report Database Settings, put in hostname\instancename for “Server”, and the database name for “Database”.
6. Put in the user created in #4 for SQL-level authentication.
7. Click Test.  If all is well, it will ask if you want to create the tables.  Click OK.  Then you’re done!

This tool:

http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe

removes McAfee non-enterprise products.  No non-installer methods currently known for enterprise products.

In XP and up, registry entries have permissions. These can get corrupted in many ways, including by malware and by antivirus tools. If you get a “permission denied” when trying to change or delete a registry entry, you will need to right-click on the folder and add permissions, and then do the deletion. It is usually most straightforward to add the permission to the user logged in, though you’ll have to play with the dialog box if you’re on a domain.

If you receive messages (in diverse ways) saying that your system cannot find Explorer.exe, start Regedit (possibly in Safe Mode Command Prompt Only), and go to:

HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/Current Version/Image File Execution Options/explorer.exe

Look for a subitem named “Debugger”, and remove it. Then reboot.

This reportedly happens a lot when antispyware applications remove infections without fixing the above issue.

If it happens again after the reboot, your antivirus is causing it, by unsuccessfully attempting to remove antispyware, repeatedly. In this case, do the registry change, but don’t reboot: just run Explorer.exe from the command prompt. It will run. Then run something else to clear out the spyware.

Sometimes, AVG 8 will fail to install, giving an error message stating that the AVG 8 Watchdog service has failed to start. In these cases, remove the all-users AVG agent config folder, reboot, and reinstall.

Under XP, this folder is here:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\avg8\Cfg

Under Vista, this folder is here:
C:\ProgramData\avg8\Cfg

BitDefender has an uninstall tool available which will remove all versions of the agent from XP, Vista, and Server 2003/2008. The web page is here:

http://www.bitdefender.com/KB333-en—How-to-uninstall-BitDefender.html