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Another good little app from CPUID is HWMonitor. Doesn't do as much as SpeedFan, but still shows quite a bit of information and doesn't require installation. I never have figured out how to get SpeedFan to alter my fan's speeds. Does it do that? Thank you for that link, YoKenny. A picture:

Don't hold back, Andavari. Say what you mean. edit: Tom AZ, BlackViper's website has lots of information about windows services. http://www.blackviper.com/

Well good for you, Dennis. Your good humor and broad knowledge will add a lot to the forum. Good choice, Mr. G.

Hi Eli. I just did this experiment...it may answer your Q. 1. Opened IE7 sandboxed with avast running. 2. Went to the eicar test virus site: http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm - eicar files are not real virus files, but they trigger an antivirus alert. 3. Tried to download the test virus files. Avast caught them, so they never downloaded into the sandbox. 4. Turned off avast on access scanner. One really shouldn't do that, but I did anyway. 5. Downloaded the eicar test files. They went into the sandbox, not the folder I sent'em to, of course. 6. Turned avast back on. 7. Scanned the sandbox with avast. avast found and removed the all the eicar test files, so they are no longer present in the sandbox. So: avast prevented the download of a (not really) malicious file, and then removed it from the sandbox after it was downloaded anyway. Doesn't really mean that avast can be installed into a sandbox, don't know about that, but does mean that if a malicious file gets there, avast will find it just as it would at some other place on the hard drive. You can use windows explorer to look at the sandbox; on this computer it is located at c:\sandbox and contains all the files and folders modified during a sandboxed session. You may need to have the "show hidden files and folders" option checked. Also, I think the siren when avast finds something is nifty.

Not smooth. AMD processor, Compaq system. Installed sp3 from auto updates. Got no warnings, but then restarted into the Black screen reboot loop. 4 hours so far. Used system restore. Edit: Thank you Hazelnut. Will try the fix.

I actually bought one once that would display "Windows cannot find the operating system" every second or third time you restarted. Took it back, the store guy didn't want to take it. When it did work, he would point at it and say "See, it's working OK." After a calm and rational discussion, he took it back. Never did find out what was wrong...bad memory, am repressing it.

It sure is. Thanks very much for the quick reply.

May 3rd '08, serial site won't open. (Download site did open). Guess I missed it. Thanks anyway.

With spybot ver 1.5, the tea timer can be disabled by clicking "mode", then "advanced mode", then "tools", then "resident", then uncheck the tea timer box. Tea Timer runs pretty heavy, as I bet you've noticed, but it is a good protection.

Hi, mam' Take a look at Rridgely's post: http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=14809&hl

You are quite right, Andavari. But none of those I listed change the registry very much as far as I can tell, nor compromise performance after they are run. Sophos does add a stubborn key: HKLM\...\LEGACY_MEMSWEEP2, but no harm done as I can tell. Anthony_A is right too. You gotta know what you're doing. Expert help is called for if you think you have found a rootkit. If it was easy everybody would be doin' it.

IceSword is pretty good, but detects many processes that are harmless. Info and a download link: http://www.castlecops.com/t165203-IceSword...llustrated.html SpyBot S&D is getting into rootkit finding; they describe their present app as "a work in progress". Info and a download link: http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=24185 Sophos has a good one. You have to register to download it: http://www.sophos.com/products/free-tools/...ti-rootkit.html Sysinternals has a good one: RootKit Revealer. Info and a download link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb897445.aspx None of the above require installation, all are free. I just use them to find out whats going on in my computer...never have found anything ugly, thank goodness. Would have to get expert help if an actual rootkit showed up. You have to be careful, a lot of processes that look scary are really legitimate. Also I think you do have to install the Avira RKD, but no reboot is required.

I just uninstalled an old 2007 version then installed the new one. No problems. WXP home. For the other question, once Returnil is installed you only have to turn it on...no partitioning required and you don't have to create the virtual partition during setup. I didn't, and it works fine. Thank you again, Hazelnut. You're the best.

Nice one.

Yes, it was the old start menu items search.

Happy new year, Hotdog3.

Thank you for the warning. Eraser version 5.84 32 bit has worked here (Win XP home) w/ no problems for quite a while. This version still available at: http://www.onlyfreewares.com/Utilities/Enc...rity/Eraser.php I just downloaded it and compared the exe file with the one I am using and it seems exactly the same.

Sorry to bump up an old post, but this is maybe worth knowing for other registry challenged members like me. Thanks to Weaselbites and JD for pointing it out. Just used RegSeeker myself, it found 624 entries. Held my breath, checked and deleted them all. The magic box is still up and running, everything still works. As insurance, had made registry backups and a restore point beforehand.

Thanks, Hazelnut, you're the best. Will pass this on to eligible kids in the family.

I think autoruns will do it for a startup item, and services.msc will do it for a service. Autoruns is: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb963902.aspx

Just have installed VMware Server 1.0.4. Its Free. It was recommended some time ago by Humpty. Thanks, Humpty, it's great. Running on WXP in the VM right now. It is at: http://register.vmware.com/content/download.html There is also a version 2 beta, free, but I haven't used it, and now a ver. 3 beta. Haven't had ver. 1.0.4 long, but here is some info. May be something that everyone already knows, but if not it is worth a look. VMware installs right in on a windows xp home operating system. MS Virtual PC 2007 will not. It requires WXP pro. I tried it. Those using WXP Home OEM which came preinstalled won't be able to use Microsoft VPC 2007. Easy to install. Easy to configure as you install it. You don't have to partition the HD. The vm you create is actually a folder visible in windows explorer. Easy to understand menus once it is installed. Allows the use of external USB devices. My usb2 external responds as fast in the virtual machine as it does in the host. You can create and run as many guest operating systems as your memory will support. Supports a big variety of guest OSs. MS VPC literature seems to say that it won't support an OS which is not supported by the MS product lifecycle. Don't know that for sure, can't try it. You need a license for each guest OS. You can save one snapshot (maybe more, haven't tried it yet), to restore the VM if something goes blooey. Supposedly, nasties can not get out of the VM. ?? Wouldn't bet on that, but it is another layer. I have a fairly fast setup. Here is what I've seen in the way of performance in the virtual machine. Slows down the operation of your applications a little. Boots up a bit slowly compared to the host OS. The mouse and the windows are a bit jerky. Noticeable but not bad. Takes a long time to find the USB device, maybe 10, 15 seconds, but then the USB runs normally. You can allocate and later adjust the amount of memory each VM uses, up to a certain point. You want all the memory you can get. Each guest OS you have running uses however much memory you allocate it, plus the VMWare app itself is kind of heavy. Sooo. VMware seems to be a good extra layer of security, and a way of trying out applications without gumming up your registry and dll cache. The snapshot puts it back right. I wish I had learned of it long ago, would have just run the VM and so would not now be facing the dreaded reinstall ordeal. Snapshot puts it all back in about 4 minutes. There is a companion application, VMWare converter, which purports to "clone a physical machine" which will then run on VMWare server. Haven't tried it, don't even know for sure what that means, but will soon. it is at: http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/ I know Hazelnut has used VMWare quite a bit, and several others on this forum. If I have left something out in spite of this deluge of words, maybe one of the other members can fill in the gaps. As I find out more I'll report it. Till then.

hi, JD. I must have missed that post, but thanks for the current information. Will give it a go soon.

"Does this help somewhat or have I got it wrong?" Very helpful. Thank you. I'm going to give it a try, while protected with powershadow or returnil. but have to log off now and will not be able to report anything for a day or 2. Would not tinker with it unless I had one of those protective programs running, cause I'm a registry scaredy-cat.

Hi, W... That is a bundle of information...Thanks. What is safe to delete? I don't recognize any of that stuff.

Thank you. Got it, maybe try it later.