How To Restore Computer To Its Factory Setting ?

To restore computer in safe mode, follow these steps:-

Log on to Windows as Administrator.

Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore. System Restore starts.

On the Welcome to System Restore page, click Restore my computer to an earlier time (if it is not already selected), and then click Next.

On the Select a Restore Point page, click the most recent system restore point in the On this list, click a restore point list, and then click Next.

Note A System Restore message may appear that lists configuration changes that System Restore will make. Click OK.

On the Confirm Restore Point Selection page, click Next. System Restore restores the previous Windows XP configuration, and then restarts the computer.

Log on to the computer as Administrator. The System Restore Restoration Complete page is displayed.

Click OK.

source:-http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084

How to Remove Autorun.inf virus Completly from System & Flash Drives ?

Using CMD to Remove Autorun.inf Virus from the System & Removable Drives

* Method One

Open command line (CMD) and write the following:

del /a:rhs [driveletter]:autorun.inf

Simply Replace [driveletter] with your drive. If the virus is on the D drive the commad will be

del /a:rhs D:autorun.inf

Restart the computer & Done.

* Second Method

Genreally when you refresh the windows explorer view a bounded virus process recreates this file. This file is attached to many events of windows explorer including OPEN, REFRESH, etc.

You must close opened explorer windows.

1. Open up a command prompt (i.e. cmd.exe) >> to load it go to Run, type cmd, enter.

2. Now to remove virus’s attributes (in order to delete it type following line by line and execute them pressing enter.

F:

F:attrib -s -r -h *.*

If there are any malicious EXE files those are now visible so if unnecessary delete them too.

F:del autorun.inf

3. After finishing above, quickly remove the pendrive as soon as posible (just after executing del command).

4. Now your pen is without virus activation config. file. Now you can safely delete unnecessary EXE files on it.

* Method Third

* Download Flash_Disinfector.exe from here and save it to your desktop.

* Double-click Flash_Disinfector.exe to run it and follow any prompts that may appear.

* The utility may ask you to insert your flash drive and/or other removable drives including your mobile phone.

* Please do so and allow the utility to clean up those drives as well.

* Wait until it has finished scanning and then exit the program.

* Reboot your computer when done.

Note: Flash_Disinfector will remove any autorun.inf files, create a hidden folder named autorun.inf in each partition and every USB drive plugged in when you ran it. Don’t delete this folder. It will help protect your drives from future infection.

source:http://inforids.com/remove-autoruninf-virus-completly-from-system-flash-drives

How To Prevent Gmail From Hacker Phisher ?

Nowadays, its very common to hear about various incidents of Gmail hacking by Gmail phisher. Today, online privacy is maintained only if the user is aware of various hacks used to hack email accounts. Hence, i thought of writing an article on the same topic of preventing Gmail from being hacked by hackers. Friends, i highly recommend you to read this article to prevent ur future damages.

What is a phisher?

I have explained in my post Hack email account password by phishing., Phishing is the best working method of hacking email account. The advantage of phishing in email account hacking is that victim is not able to recognise the fake page (phisher) as this phisher matches with the original page(depends on hacker skills).

So, here i have mentioned few tips which you should follow to prevent hacking of your email account by hackers. So lets start:

1. Phishing filter:

I will recommend use of browser which has phishing filter. Internet browsers like Firefox 3.0(my favorite), Internet Explorer 7, Opera 7x which contain phishing filter should be used for safe browsing.

2. Do not provide sensitive information :

Yes, this is the main thing you have to remember. Unless and until, you know the person or institute, do not give your sensitive information like userids , passwords, bank account numbers as a reply to any email. In fact, 90% emails demanding such information are meant for hacking..remember !

3. Suspicious Filters :

Check whether there are any suspicious filters not created by you. For checking ur email filters, go to Settings-> Filters. If you find any such suspicious filter not created by you, delete it urgently.

4. Great offers, ads, winners :

Generally, Gmail users are deceived by emails which contain great offers, ads or declaring that u are lucky winner and you should provide listed query information to receive your cash prize. Never click or provide any information for such claiming emails.

5. Disable Forwarding and POP/IMAP :

To disable forwarding and POP/IMAP, go to Settings-> Forwarding and POP/IMAP and disable forwarding and POP/IMAP.

6. The most important :

The most important precaution which one must follow is “do not click on the link” provided in the email without knowing to which page the link will take you. I have added my personal experience of phishing and the method to determine the link target, where i received a paypal phisher, in my article Paypal phisher to hack Paypal account. One more thing, always open link given in email by typing address of site in new tab/window.

Thus, if you will follow these guidelines, i bet ur Gmail account will never be hacked by a phisher. Just remember the guidelines and prevent Gmail account from being hacked by hackers.

source:-http://rozgarpatrika.com/2010/01/6-ways-how-to-prevent-gmail-from-hacker-phisher

How To Fix Computer Restarting Problem

If your computer shuts down or crashes you might find yourself in a annoying situation where the computer continuously reboots in a loop while attempting to start Windows.

This may be caused by the registry becoming corrupt as a result of an application writing to the registry at the time of a system crash. The next time the computer boots up and tries to read the registry the system fails and has to restart.

To fix the problem

* When the computer restarts, shortly after the initial beep press F8
* Select "Boot from last known working configuration"

If the above does not fix the problem you might want to work your way through my How to service your PC article to replace and recover corrupted Windows files that might be causing the problem.

Steps to prevent continuously restarting during bootup

* Click Start
* Settings (Skip on Windows XP)
* Control Panel
* System (May need to click "Switch to classic")
* Advanced Tab
* Press Settings button
* Uncheck "Automatically restart"



This will prevent Windows from restarting even when it encounters an error during the bootup process.

source:-http://www.alexnolan.net/articles/restarting.htm

How to delete protected files and folders in Windows Vista ?

Step 1

The first step is to change ownership on all the files and subfolders in the folder you want to delete. Right click the folder, select properties. Deselect read only, and then select the security tab. In the Security tab, select "advanced". Go to the "owner" tab, and select whichever of your personae you are logged in as. I was logged in as "Karen/Administrator" and this worked well for me. Select "Edit". In the new window click "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" and then click apply.

Step 2

Don't forget the check box at the bottom and don't be alarmed by error messages saying you must skip or ignore files. Next, you need to redefine the permissions available to the new owner identity. Go to the Permissions tab. Click "Edit". You will get another window, where you will again select the user you want to change permissions for. Find your user identity on the list that appears, and choose the one that says "this folder, subfolders and files" or something to that effect. It varies. Click "Include inheritable permissions" and "Replace all inheritable permissions on all descendents", then select "Edit" (again) and in the permissions window that shows up, click everything in the allow column (clicking full control should do this for you). Hit O.K., the window will close, then hit "apply" in the next window. Hit O.K. to close the advanced security settings window.

Step 3

At this point you should be back to the first properties window. Select Edit and, in the new window, select your active user, and click Full control in the allow column. This column may be fuzzed out, but all the boxes are checked anyway. Click Apply, which closes the window, and then select O.K. to close the last window.

Step 4

You are done, or you would be done if Vista didn't suck. During this process, you will probably have seen various messages telling you this or that file or folder was too protected, and you couldn't change it, but would have to skip or ignore it, while other files and folder changed their permissions with no problem. These files and folder that couldn't be changed by a global reset such as I have just described will have to be addressed individually. In the mean time, however, you can go into the folder you want to delete, select all (ctrl>a) and hit delete. This will at least eliminate the files and folders you don't have to treat individually.

And how do you treat them individually? You go through and do the same damn thing you just did to the top level folder and you repeat it for any sub folders and files that persist in being protected, even though you clicked "all subfolders" initially. Vista has trust issues, and they don't really believe you know what you are doing and so, like in any dysfunctional relationship, you have to repeat and repeat yourself and hope that something sticks.

The first time you see the window warning you that you are about to delete a system file, give yourself a pat on the back, because it means that you are on your way to delete most of the obnoxious files. When I did this, I still couldn't delete the entire back up, because the folder has two hidden files in it that only show up if I try to delete the supposedly empty folder. Oh well, I got 17 gig of harddrive back, so I will survive.

Source:http://www.ehow.com/how_5906029__delete-files-folders-windows-vista.html

How to Fix a Hard Drive Crash ?

All you have to need is a Spare computer Data recovery software Screwdriver and follow the steps below:-

Step 1
Use a screwdriver to remove the screws holding the computer cover in place. Slide off the computer cover and locate the hard drive, which usually looks like a black plastic rectangular box enclosed in a metal casing. The hard drive will be linked to other components by a long plastic ribbon-like cord that has a long interlocking and connecting device attached to it.

Step 2
Remove the metal housing, which should require nothing more than removing some screws.

Step 3
Disconnect the hard drive by pulling the interlocking end of the lock ribbon cord until it comes free.

Step 4
Unscrew anything still holding the hard drive in place, and pull the hard drive unit out of the computer.

Step 5
Install the damaged hard drive into a spare machine as the secondary drive.

Step 6
On the secondary machine's primary drive, install the data recovery software.

Step 7
Fire up the machine and give it time to recovery as much of the data as it can. You won't be able to know the full extent of what was recovered until a few days have passed.

How to Fix a Crashed Hard drive ? 

Fix Rundll32.exe

In order to solve the problem, it is often necessary to go through a series of possible solutions or fixes to the problem. The first and most basic step is to do a simple reboot of your computer. If this does not seem to solve the problem, continue to the next possible fix.

If the rundll error has occurred because of a faulty uninstall, the next thing to do is to completely redo the uninstall. How do you know if this is the problem? Actually, you don't, but you can consider it, if you recently attempted to uninstall a program. To uninstall the program again, you will first need to reinstall it. Now, carefully perform a new uninstall of the program. If this solves the problem, you are in the clear. If not, continue troubleshooting.

If you have an up to date anti-spyware application, run it now. Since spyware, adware, and malware are constantly evolving into newer and more insidious versions, it is extremely important to maintain a current version. If the rundll errors continue to occur, attempt to do a clean boot.

Complete the following steps in order to perform a clean boot on your computer.

• Click start to open the menu.
• Click run
• Type "msconfig" in the input field.
• Click ok. The System Configuration Utility should open.
• Once the System Configuration Utility opens, choose the selective startup option by clicking in the small circle in front of it. Deselect all but one choice listed below it. It doesn't matter which one, because you will need to do this until you have covered each one of the choices.
• Click ok.
• Reboot your computer
• Once this process identifies the item that is at the root of the rundll problem, you move to the next step. Select the tab at the top of the System Configuration Utility Window that corresponds to the item that has been identified.
• Deselect all but one of the choices below the tab.
• Reboot your computer. If the computer reboots without any problems, continue the process of elimination. Deselect different scenarios until you identify the problem. Reboot.
• Once you identify the problematic item, you are finished with this procedure.

How to Fix Missing NTLDR and Ntdetect.com files

Follow the steps to fix the error:-

Step 1
Insert the Windows installation CD into the computer's drive and reboot the machine. When the Machine starts a message displayed " press any key to boot."

Step 2
Now click the "R" key to choose "Recovery Console." option and then select the Windows installation that is required to be fixed. This is only mandatory if there are more than one version of Windows installed on the machine. For most users, clicking "1" selects the version of Windows installed.

Step 3
Now enter the administrator's password into the command prompt. After the password is entered, you are given a Windows command prompt where the NTLDR and ntdetect.com files are restored.

Step 4
After that type the following statements into the command prompt:

xcopy x:\i386\ntdetect.com c:
xcopy x:\i386\ntldr c:

and then press "Enter" key.

Note:- Replace "x" with the drive letter of your CD drive and replace "C" with the drive location for the Windows installation.

Step 5
Remove the boot disk and reboot your machine. Windows boots and the error are corrected.

How to fix large file copying problems in Windows Vista ?

Vista has a new feature called 'receive window auto-tuning'. In short, this allows Vista to automatically scale the size of each packet of data it requests and receives over a network connection to suit the available bandwidth. Sometimes, older networking hardware may have issues with this new technique and refuse to co-operate, leading to dropped file transfers, slow performance and other weird problems.

If you are experiencing network issues with large file transfers and occasional connection problems with applications like Messenger, you can restrict or disable the receive window auto-tuning feature.

To do this, open a command prompt window with administrative privileges To run a program with Administrative rights:

1)Type the name of the program “cmd” in the 'start' menu searchbar.

2)Right click on the program's icon “cmd” in the search results and choose 'run as administrator.'

3)Now in the cmd type 'netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=restricted' and press Enter.

If this fixes your issues, relax. If you continue to have networking problems, open another administrative prompt and type 'netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled'.

source:-http://hubpages.com/hub/windows-xp-vista-tips-and-tweaks

How To Backup Email Accounts in Outlook, Outlook Express & Windows Mail

Outlook 

With Microsoft Outlook Support there is a backup tool that is free for download, and you download it to your personnel computer, then run and uninstall it. It installs right into Outlook, and then you go to File>Backup and just follow the prompt. There is even an option to choose where the backup goes. You can back it up to another hard drive, CD or over a network.

This tool works great and does it pretty fast (depending on how much email you have) This tool will work on Outlook 2002, 2003, 2007. For more help on using this handy tool click here.

Outlook Express

Outlook Express is notas easy. There are several steps, and they are outlined in this document from Microsoft. The process is not hard, but not as straight forward as Outlook. First you locate the "Store" folder, where your email is stored for that account. Then you copy the contents of that folder to a new backup folder. All a bit manual, but all doable if you follow the instructions in the above document.

It also shows you how to save your address book.

Windows Mail

Vista does not come with Outlook Express, but it has Windows Mail. It looks and acts pretty much like Express, but it has been Vistaized. It looks oh so pretty. Vista has a File Backup utility built into the Operating System. If you go to Control Panel>System Maintenance on some versions, and Control Panel>Backup and Restore Center. It allows you to back up your data, your email, photos, and other various choices. It is pretty good, and finally built into Windows. Windows 7 will also have these features from what we have been told.

Computer problems

Computer problems are deeply associated with developing IT industry. Most generic computer problems are often linked with system performance and corruption of operating system. So let's have a look at some of the etiquettes and troubleshooting method to deal with computer problems. If you have Windows XP operating system, then you might be aware of the Desktop cleanup Wizard. The feature of this tool is to remove unused icons from the desktop on the regular basis, this in turns improves the system performance. User can easily enable this Desktop cleanup Wizard from the below steps.

STEP 1. Right-click over the desktop and select Properties.

STEP 2. From the Display Properties dialog box select the Desktop tab.

STEP 3. Select "Customize Desktop."

STEP 4. In the Desktop Items dialog box clear the Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days check box.

STEP 5.Click OK to close the dialog boxes

Sometimes your operating system may not be working properly. You may face boot issue issue. To handle this computer problem user have to make an attempt to repair the operating system.

This can be performed with the help of Windows XP Installation CD. Follow the below steps:

STEP 1. Restart the computer with the Windows Installation CD.

STEP 2. Press Enter when you got the message" To setup Windows XP now appears."

STEP 3. Press Enter when you get Welcome screen of Setup.

STEP 4. Press F8 to agree against the Windows XP Licensing Agreement.

STEP 5. Press R to repair Windows XP.

STEP 6. Follow the repair installation instruction.

Unable to get logon on the computer Windows is another serious computer problem. This may happen due to invalid registry entry as a consequence of some virus or spyware attack. User can address this computer problem with the below mention steps.

STEP 1. Restart the computer and Boot into safe mode.

STEP 2. Click Start, Run and enter regedit into the text box. Hit Enter.

STEP 3. Click on the + sign against, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft \Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

STEP 4. Choose the Winlogon folder.

STEP 5. Check the right-hand pane which contains an entry named OldUserinit:

STEP 6. Delete Userinit.

STEP 7. Now rename OldUserinit to Userinit.

STEP 8. Check that the value of Userinit is "C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe," (the comma at the end of the string is important.)

Important: Modify the path if your Windows folder is not C:\Windows.

How to clean and speed up your computer for free.

How to fix svchost.exe application error ?

Verify and Configure your Windows Update Service Settings

Step 1
Click on the Start button at the bottom left-hand corner of your desktop. Once the Start menu opens, click Run and then type "services.msc" in the text field. Click OK when you are done.

Step 2
Navigate to the Automatic Updates service in the right-hand pane and then double-click on it. Select the Log On tab. Make sure that Local System Account is selected as the default logon account.

Step 3
Uncheck the option "Allow service to interact with desktop." Now go to the Hardware Profile section, also found under the Log On tab. Enable this service.

Step 4
Click on the General tab. Verify that the start-up type is set to Automatic. If not, use the drop-down menu to select this option.

Step 5
Go to the Service Status section. Click on the Start button to enable this service. Do the same thing for the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (or BITS).

Reconfigure Your Windows Update DLLs

Step 1
Click the Start button and then click Run. Type "cmd" into the text field. Click OK.

Step 2
In the Command Prompt, type in REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL and hit Enter.

Step 3
Wait until you receive a message reading "DllRegisterServer in WUAPI.DLL succeeded."

Step 4
Repeat this process for each of the following commands; type in each command and hit Enter after each line:

REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL
REGSVR32 WUAUENG1.DLL
REGSVR32 ATL.DLL
REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL
REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL

Delete the Corrupted Windows Update Files


Step 1
Type the following command into the command prompt and press Enter: net stop WuAuServ. Type in: cd %windir% and hit Enter.

Step 2
Now type in: ren SoftwareDistribution SD_OLD. This will rename the SoftwareDistribution folder.

Step 3
Restart the Windows Update service by inputting the following command: net start WuAuServ.

Step 4
Type in: Exit and then hit Enter to close the Windows Command Prompt.

Step 5
Reboot your PC. When you restart Windows, you shouldn't receive this error message anymore. If you do, download the two Windows Updates listed below.

source:- www.ehow.com

Fix Your Slow Computer

Computer slow due to following reason:

• Viruses and Spyware
• Hard Drive Fragmentation
• Hardware Conflict
• Too Many Start Up Programs
• Outdated Computer

Follow the details given below to boost the performance of the computer:-

Delete all unwanted program, files and folders form your desktop. Then scan your computer with an updated antivirus program. This will clean up all the ads that site downloads that you may not even aware of. Mostly it happens that the computer runs faster if these steps are done alone.

Now scan your computer for virus and spywares. By doing this process your computer will be free from those nasty virus.Now take time to defrag your computer. People usually forget this. If you are using Windows operating System then go to your ''control panel'' select ''administrative tools'' then select ''computer management'' Under the tab ''storage'' you will find ''disk defrag'' at this point you can select which drive you wish to do.

Blue Screen of Death

The Windows operating system constantly refers to the registry to get information about all of the components such as hardware and software which are installed on the computer. The registry tells Windows what to do and how to access the various programs, files, and processes.

However, the registry can contain bad information which sends Windows off doing useless tasks or running unneeded routines. Sometimes errors occur including the blue screen of death. Other times the system slows down. Because of the sheer number of factors that can affect the registry, there’s no one size fits all approach. You can’t just go into the registry and remove the bad information because it’s nearly impossible to decipher which information is good and which information is bad. That’s a job better suited for software.

Microsoft's Browser Under Fire

An unusual thing done by German and French agencies that they posted a notice about Internet Explorer on there website about the security issues and advise computer users to use any other browser.

This notice give boost to MS competitor. A Norwegian software company state that the number of Opera browser download made in Germany doubled to approx 18,000 a day.

Germany's Federal Office for Information Security and France’s CERTA agency advised people to use an alternative browser because of Internet Explorer security issues.

Malicious code is created to affect the computer and they make use of the exposure of Internet Explorer 6. Using Internet Explorer hackers could remotely run malicious program on windows PC’s. It is required for the people using IE6 to adjust the security setting to HIGH.

Microsoft representative said that the company has been talking to French and Germany agencies to provide accurate and up to date information regarding this issue.

Microsoft also said to upgrade IE to the latest version i.e. Internet Explorer 8.

source:- http://hubpages.com/hub/Microsofts-Browser-Under-Fire

Computer Network Monitoring Tips

Things you will be needed to monitor computer network

Hardware hub

Administrative access to the monitor computers

Microsoft Network Monitor (Netmon.exe) software

All you have to do is first connect the computer you have targeted and the monitor to hardware hub, so that the user can see the traffic to the target computer. After that install MS network monitor named NETMON.EXE to the monitoring computer.

After complete installation of that software, start the application with the help of the icon created on the desktop.

Now select the network adapter from the start page that you have to monitor and select the NEW CAPTURE BUTTON that will open a new tab to the window.

Press the START button on the new capture tab for start capturing the traffic. The tracked traffic will be displayed on the left side of the screen. This will help you in viewing the sending and receiving details on what computer you have targeted.

As soon as you saw some process or any program that appears on the left side of the screen, it means either the program has sent or received data. To view what data was sent or received you have to click that program. All the details will be displayed when you click it i.e. what website was viewed, which IP address were accessed, what data was received or sent.

To view data transmission that happens between other computers all you have to click on the plus sign next to program or process.

For having the records of the traffic analysis click “save as” button. The data have been saved for future reference.

source:-http://hubpages.com/hub/Computer-Network-Monitoring-Tips