TonyKlein

Here ya go: http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=122 ... Erm, on further thought, your Arovax Shield might be the alternative that's easier to implement... LOL As for SG, I've always be a fan of Javacool's, but I fear he's been spreading himself too thin... The lack of movement with regards to MRUBlaster was in fact what led me to CCleaner in the first place... His SpywareBlaster is still very much to be recommended, and it is being kept up to date as well

I have to say I agree there, although SG for a large part doesn't rely on definitions. Not familiar with Arovax myself, but alternatively, for real time protection SpyBot S&D might also be a good choice, with its Teatimer component.

Can you do the Startup Folder thing yourself, or do you want some guidance there as well? As for that one, log in as Adminstrator, rightclick the Start button, and choose "Explore All Users". Drill down to the Startup folder of the account where SQ launches automatically at boot (typically C:\Documents and Settings\"User Name"\Start Menu\Programs\Startup, locate the SG link and move it to the Startup Folder of the All Users account As for the Registry bit I'd like to see an export of the registry key in question. Log on to the account where SpywareGuard does start up automatically. Now go to Start > Run, and paste the following into the box, then click OK: regedit /e C:\run.txt HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run That will export the contents of that key to a C:\Run.txt file Paste the contents of the run.txt file into your reply, and I'll tell you how to proceed.

If it is a USB keyboard, and your computer's BIOS doesn't provide legacy support for USB devices it won't work in MS-DOS at all. But I understand that some keys DO work?

SpywareGuard is generally launched from the Startup folder. If you want it to launch automatically at boot in ALL accounts, move the link to the Global (All Users) Startup folder SuperAntispyware on the contrary is generally launched from the Registry, for the current user only, creating a string value in this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/ CurrentVersion/Run If you want the application to launch at boot for all accounts the startup entry needs to be in the similarly named key in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE branch of the Registry Moving the SG link from the User Startup folder to All Users shouldn't be a prob. If you have trouble with the Registry part, just say so, and I'll help you fix that as well.

In addition, here's some more information from this excellent Task List Programs Database: As for the UnpnP Internet Server vulnerabity, it was first reported in 2001 and MS subsequenly issued a couple of patches to fix (most of) it. Still, it IS recommended to disable the 'feature' until (possibly) needed. You can use Steve Gibson's handy little "UnpLug 'n Pray" application to toggle it off/on should it be needed: http://www.grc.com/unpnp/unpnp.htm

Glzd we were able to help. As for your questions, "y" should really work, just like it does in the batch command: "DELTREE /y" Not sure what happened there... And here's some reading on index.dat files: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index.dat Happy surfing!

Thank you; that really brings a whole new perspective to the issue at hand!

LOL!... now if all questions were as clearly formulated as our answers...

Well: rd /s /q c:\recycler , as I said before... That will get rid of the Recycler folder, including a possibly corrupted Info2 file. (Incidentally, I had to correct my previous post, in which I had it as C:\recycleD, which would be have been the case if this were Fat32)

Neighberaaron is absolutely right in that Recycle Bin problems can also be due to corruption of one of the pertinent registry keys, and that can certainly be fixed, but I rather have an idea that this is not the case here. In fact, is this even a Recycle Bin problem at all? What program did you use, what were the files it found, did YOU move those to the registry bin, and were you subsequently unable to delete them from there? Or did you delete them, but they returned. And if so, did they return to their original location, or to the Recycle Bin...?

You really have to be more precise than that, as I'm really having trouble understanding what you mean...

As I explained, if you name any other folder Temp nothing will touch it, and its contents will remain intact. I thought that is what you were after. Or am I misunderstanding you, and do you on the contrary WANT the contents of your newly created Temp folder to be deleted automatically??

I'm assuming your copy of XP is using the default NTFS file system I'm not completely certain what you're referring to here, but anyway, the Recycle Bin (with NTFS "C:\Recycler" by default) is a 'special folder'. Even after emptying the Recycler bin or cleaning it with CCleaner Recycler will still contain a "Recycle Bin" for each user that logs on to the computer, sorted by their security identifier (SID). These objects have weird, long filenames, like for example"S-1-5-21-2272455930-4098879298-1067392489-1006" Sometime the folder does get corrupted. First try this: Go to Start > Run type 'cmd then hit 'Enter' Type the following at the command prompt: rd /s /q c:\recycler (note: mind you include the spaces after 'rd', 's', and 'q', Press 'Enter'. That will remove the Recycler folder Now rightclick your Desktop, and choose New > Text document. A new txtfile is created. Delete it by dragging it to it to the Recycle Bin on your desktop. Next, rightclick the Recycle Bin, and choose: "Emtpty RB" After that you should have a brand new Recycler folder that should be empty, apart from the aforementioned SID-file(s) Tell us how that goes.

At this point it may be a good idea to give us a closer look at your configuration. To this end, post a HijackThis log in the appropriate section of this board. You'll find a sticky at the top of the page explaining how to go about it.

[reply edited, as I forgot to mention the User Temp folders... D'UH! )

That's good to hear. Here you go; in fact, in the Autoexec.bat, delete the "Deltree /Y C:\Windows\Tempor~1" line I frst gave you, and replace it by adding the folllwing three lines under the 'smartdrv' line: It's just a tad more 'elegant', and achieves the same thing. Now the contents of your History, TIF, AND Cookies folders will be deleted on boot, and a spanking new index.dat file will be created in each. BTW, all this happens because Windows stores the location of these and other per-user special folders under the following registry keys: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders ... and it consults those keys at boot, making sure those shell folders exist. If not, it will create them It's a nice excercise in batch file writing, but, no not really. A brand new index.dat file contains no user data, so if you do it 'my' way that's absolutely sufficient.

I'm not sure everyone is talking about the same thing here (and I'm not even sure I am... ) . Anyway, if I understand your question correctly, yes, you can certainly create a new folder called "Temp" in any location you want without the risk of any application, Windows OR CCLeaner seeing it or messing with it. Windows and applications look at the registry to determine what constitutes the "real" temp folder, and that's the one they use. We're talking about the "Temp" and "TMP" Expanded String Values in this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\currentcontrolset\Control\Session manager\Environment By default it is %SystemRoot%\TEMP (generally C:\Windows\Temp) And per User, the same values in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment ... being: %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp (ie C:\Documents and settings\UserName\Local Settings\Temp You should stay out of those folders. Temp folders located anywhere else however will not be recognized by applications or the operating system, and in fact I have four or five of them myself: C:\Temp C:\Downloads\Temp and so on...

Ah, thanks for the tip! Not sure whether it will help in this case, but it may help me LOL!. I've seen occasional occurences of profile unload problems (evt ID 1517) in my Event log, but as otherwise everything runs fine I never bothered to investigate further. This may however be just what's required. Thanks again!

Does it also hang if you shut down from Safe Mode?

You're welcome. Nothing to lose sleep over by the looks of it.

"Archive damaged" usually indicates that Nod32 is unable to open the file, I believe. What is the exact name and location of that file?

Thanks, Hazelnut. Shutdown problems being among the most frequent issues reported at Windows Help forums and newsgroups I actually had this one in my canned replies...

Also, if this is Windows XP, here's the pertinent MS Knowledge Base article: Resources to help troubleshoot shutdown problems in Windows XP And/or pay a visit to the Windows Shutdown Troubleshooter: Windows XP Shutdown & Restart Troubleshooting Jim Eshelman has written the book on Windows shutdown problems. Good luck!

Wow, that was a lot of fun!