TonyKlein

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=12565

I have to say CCleaner really does an outstanding job, even in comparison with reg cleaners double the price... Unless you know what you're doing, and are prepared to double-check every second 'orphaned' key or value you're presented with, I wouldn't bother with any other registry cleaner. I run JV16 Power Tools' Reg cleaner alongside CCleaner, but, although it is a good application it still has its fallibilities

I'd have to say ClipMate: http://www.thornsoft.com/ It's the Swiss army knife of clipboard extenders... A couple of close contenders: Notetab Pro (although the freeware version is almost as good): http://www.notetab.com/ Registrar Registry Manager: http://www.resplendence.com/registrar Diskeeper Pro Premier (I love how it defrags in the background): http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/premier/premier.asp Acronis True Image: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/ Mailwasher Pro: http://firetrust.com/products/mailwasher-pro Website Watcher: http://www.aignes.com/ - extremely versatile, saves me so much time!

The latter's correct; I'm not familiar with Registry Mechanic myself, but you can easily cripple a Restore Point by having, say, an AV, an uninstaller, or Registry Cleaner (Norton's Disk doctor is a notorious case in point, but it's not alone) tamper with it, resulting in error messages like: "Windows was unable to restore your computer to..." ... and it never tells you why either...

You're very welcome, JD. Now all it takes is remembering to actually press that button before undertaking anything that might have dire consequences. LOL! I do use Acronis True Image to back up my entire drive about once a week, but it's nice to have a couple of System Restore points that are more recent.

BTW, whereas the vbs script is only intended for XP, I see there's now a v1.2 of the exe which works with Vista. http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_sysrestorepoint.htm

Thanks. I've had such a shortcut forever, and it certainly beats going to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools , launching System Restore, and finally creating that fresh System Restore point

Incidentally, as an alternative, you can download Doug Knox' script here Save the vbs or exefile (your choice) to your hard drive, then create a shortcut to it on the Desktop or in Quick Launch, and you'll have that System Restore point at the press of a button.

You could do that in this forum However, before posting such a List, first see whether you can't identify most entries in there with the help of this database

It might not be a bad idea to add a feature in CCleaner that would force Windows to create a fresh System Restore point at the press of a button. It would be so easy to implement, and of course in addition to the majority of system files, System Restore also backs up the entire registry.

It's perfectly possible (although not extremely common) for malware to install, modify or delete files on another partition, even without digging a tunnel... I've run malware on the E:\ partition of my test box and saw it install all files on C:\ instead.... only due to sloppy programming, of course, but still...

Symantec writeup: http://www.symantec.com/security_response/...-99&tabid=1

Same here; second time round I scored way better though... I guess we're just not worthy...

In addition to the bootup scan, it also scans your system for all malware in its database every 10 seconds, and zaps it as soon as it is loaded into memory. It's pretty good at what it does, and represents a worthwhile second layer of defense. For any questions, there's a dedicated forum here

You shouldn't need to restart; If Add-Remove Programs was open while you performed the tweak you will need to close and re-launch it though.

You're very welcome; this is in fact a pretty widely known "trick"

The Windows Messenger service actually has nothing to do with MSN Messenger But you should be able to uninstall Messenger even if it came incorporated into your operating system. Go to Start > Run > type "inf" (without the quotes), then press Enter The Windows\Inf folder will open. Locate the sysoc.inf file, and open it in Notepad. - Look for the line: msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7 - Remove the word "hide", leaving the commas: msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7 - Save and close Messenger will now be listed in Add/Remove Programs, and you'll be able to uninstall it

You're very welcome, Arlene

Also, if you do NOT want MSN Live Messenger to start automatically with Windows, you can easily disable that feature using Messenger's options: Tools > Options > General > uncheck: " Automatically run Messenger when I log on to Windows"

BTW, here are three databases that can help you identify these entries. For the entries in Uninstall: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/uninstall/ For Startup entries: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/ http://www.castlecops.com/StartupList.html When still in doubt, or if unsure what a particular entry stands for, don't hesitate to ask.

Hi and welcome. You shouldn't delete ANY of them, unless you have a very good reason to, as well as knowing what you're doing. The Uninstall section contains the applications listed in Add/Remove Programs. The only entries there that can safely be removed are those belonging to software you once had but are certain you uninstalled later. Do not touch anything you do not recognize! The entries in the Startup section represent applications that launch automatically at boot-time. There again, only have CCleaner remove those entries belonging to software you no longer have installed, or ones associated with known malware.

http://www.sophos.com/security/hoaxes/olympic.html

np, you're very welcome.

Just copy (not move) the file into the C:\Windows\System32 folder. That should be all.

It's a hidden folder. How to show hidden and protected operating system files in Windows