[texred]

OTL is stuck on "deleteself" for 30 mins now . . .

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of course after i typed that it asked to reboot. . . never mind, all is well, i will carry on-talk to you momentarily (fingers crossed)
Ta

[texred]

of course after i typed that it asked to reboot. . . never mind, all is well, i will carry on-talk to you momentarily (fingers crossed)
Ta

[Nutloaf]

Hi there Texred

In this last post I will try to clear up what happened and offer some advice before we part ways

What happened?

Junk Programs and E-mail infection

• strongvault online backup
• Youtube video downloader
• Top Arcade Hits
• Perfect Uninstaller
• Television Fanatic
• Spigot Search
• My Web Search
• Ask Toolbar
• Conduit
• DriverCure
• Smartbar Toolbar
• WeCareReminder
• PackageAware
• YahooPartnerToolbar
• RegCure Pro

The above programs were responsible for delivering Pop-ups, redirects and poor performance particularly your browsers. This type of software is often bundled into some free programs, you have to be careful when installing software that you look at each screen before clicking Next.

Another reason came in the form of images probably sent be E-mail. One image was found in the Recycle Bin that looked like one of your husbands files. Files sent by E-mail that you are not sure about should be deleted or scanned by your Antivirus before opening. You were sent an E-mail if you remember to reset your Adobe password, I was also sent this E-mail it was fake. You have to be carefull as far as E-mails are concerened.

Am I safe with Avast, and Malwarebytes and common sense, or should I take other precautions?

Add to this a little know-how and you're set to go. Program Installers and e-mail attachments are the main thing to look out for.

If you are not sure what the e-mail attachment is or who it is from then delete it or download the attachment to your desktop, right click and scan with Avast first.

Program Installers, particulary free programs, are sometimes bundled with junk programs or toolbars that cause startup or internet problems. They often promise to improve performance, clean your registry, tidy up files, do the dishes etc, etc but they often cause more problems. When installing any program, make sure you take a moment to look at each screen before clicking Next. This is where you can uncheck bundled software or choose a Custom Install which allows you to decide what is installed.

And can I go back to letting Zipcloud do my backups?

I had great difficulty finding a good review of this. It seems to be a load of rubbish that causes problems. I discuss backing-up below along with VPN's.

Is it pointless to use TOR anymore?

Not pointless but only legitimate use is advised here, and this browser can be used illegally.

I bank online-VPN or don't do it? Which cloud is best?

Looking into VPN's and Cloud based back-ups seems to be down to how secure the VPN and Cloud are and How much space is offered for free. Free = Limited space and limited security regarding Banking.

I believe in paying to get the security and protection I need and paying as little as possible for my Back-ups. I run Avast free edition as I don't bank online and I have an External Hard-drive for my Back-ups. This cost me a one off payment for the Hard-drive of £50 ($80), job done. When I did bank online I purchased an Antivirus for the added Security and Data protection.

So to sum up, how much are you spending for Clouds and VPN's? If it costs more than the price of an External Hard Drive or a Purchased Antivirus License then a rethink is needed. If it were me then I would buy an External Hard-Drive for my Backups and purchase a good AV like Avast, Norton, Kaspersky etc.

Ya'll should come out with an "Idiot's Manual", or something

We are the idiots manual. You can ask many questions here in the forums. We also have Help Files in the Community section

Site Orientation

How to Guides and Tutorials

If you need help or would like to discuss the above further then please let me know.



Tips For A Clean Surf with Toolbar and Homepage Hijack free waves

Avoid the following

• Torrent downloaders, Torrent files and Torrent sites. - Otherwise known as P2P. The files are mainly illegal, contain malware and\or adult material. Steer clear of P2P programs and files..
  
• Registry Cleaners - They can clean a little too much and remove needed entries. The best thing to do with the registry is leave it be.
  
• PC Performance Boosters. - Programs that promise to speed up your PC. These are useless and\or come packed with Toolbars and other uneeded software that runs in the background causing, you guessed it Performance Issues!
  
• Not Checking Install Screens - Dont just click next, next, next and Install when installing programs. Some of the screens may contain Browsers or Toolbars. Check each screen before clicking next.
  
• E-Mail Attachments - Who is the E-mail from? Are you expecting it? Does it apply to you?

This is a great tool that cleans your temporary files. - Temp File Cleaner Run the tool as Administrator once a week.

The main thing is to Keep On Top Of Your Updates and run Weekly Scans with Malwarebytes and Avast.

I will keep this post open for 48 hours if you need assistance. If after that you need help then please start a new Topic in the appropriate forum.


Select the following link and add it to your Favourites or Bookmark for future use. The answers to the majority of PC problems.



Feel free to respond to this post here

[texred]

Thank you SO much for everything.

However, I will never be done with asking questions!

If I could impose, I have another issue. I run Windows Office 2003, and somehow (don't remember) a trial version of Office Home & Student 2007 is on my computer. Of course I cannot utilize it without a key, nor do I want one, but is it safe to remove this without affecting Office 2003? Same goes for Office Professional Edition 2003, which I am assuming got there by giving Microsoft free rein with the updates. I promise I won't bug you with less minor stuff-I will find a fix, and thanks for the tips re worthless programs.

I send kisses to all, esp Nut & Instructor

Thanks again,
Tania

[texred]

I MEANT MS Office. What an idiot.

[Nutloaf]

Hi there Texred

I have an answer regarding the Office programs which I need to have cleared first. I also need to know the following:

Was Office 2003 installed on the PC before Office Pro Edition and Office 2007?


It all depends on how they were installed with regard to removal problems.


P.S Bug away regarding any minor issues, I will help you if I can or point you in the right direction.

[texred]

Yes, Windows Home Premium and Office 2003 I ordered w/computer. The other stuff came around later. I think I got this HP G71 in 2010.

[Nutloaf]

Ok Tex this is what you need to do

To remove Office and Office Pro 2003 they have to be uninstalled in reverse order from Newest to Oldest. You may also need to have the Licence key and software as Office 2003 may have to be re-installed.

• Have the licence key and a copy of Office 2003 at hand.
  
• Uninstall Office 2007
  
• Then Uninstall Office Pro edition 2003
  
• Now check Office 2003 to see if a re-install is necessary.

Let me know how you get on

[texred]

{a bunch of words I can't say} I don't have any keys or disks (thanks HP)

[texred]

Guess I only have partial programs, coz sometimes when I ask to open a doc w/ word, 2007 pops up (instead of 2003, which I use) and asks me for key-W??

[Nutloaf]

Hi there Tex Sounds like removal is a bit of a risk, you may get away with uninstalling just the 2007 Office but it is a risk. In the meantime to set Office 2003 as Default try the following methods.


O.K 2 ways to try this:

First Method

• Select a file you want to open in Office 2003 then Right click the file and select Open with...
  
  
  
• Choose Office 2003 if listed or click browse to find Office 2003.
• Ensure Always use the selected program to open this kind of file is checked and click O.K

Second Method

• Click Start and in the search box type default programs and hit Enter
• Select Set your default programs
• Click Office 2003 if listed and select Set this program as default

[texred]

so sorry, but neither way works. in #1 nothing happens when i right-click on a file, and in #2 word (no office) is one of the default options

[Nutloaf]

in #1 nothing happens when i right-click on a file

Strange. Try it again this way - Left click the file first to select it, then right-click, anything now?

If this fails to work then it may be a case of uninstalling Office 2007 is the only way. I am looking into this more this evening for you

[texred]

No, that didn't work either. I messed around and got a 3 day old file to open with 2003, but an older file gave me s message about "blah blah blah, could be 'no longer recognized by open with feature of the operating system'". Maybe I can cut and paste the whole message for you, but now it looks like 2007 has taken over all my 2003 files!! What have we done? I did not do anything you don't know about.

[Nutloaf]

Hi there, well this is proving difficult.

Microsoft doesn't recommend installing more than 1 Office suite as issues like this are likely to arise. However I see a lot of people running more than one without much issue apart from Outlook which is a problem.

The problem you have is the lack of Disk and activation key. The activation key we could find but the disk?

I want to try 2 more things with you first before we look further but we may be at a loss. Files created earlier than Office 2003 are incompatible the same also goes for files created with 2007 being incompatible with 2003.



First

• Open Microsoft Office Word 2003
• Click File then Open and select the file you want to open
• Does this work? If so then you have to start the 2003 application first then open the file.
• If the file is incompatible then move on to the second step.

Second

As mentioned above there are compatibility issues with older or newer files than Office 2003. This will help resolve those issues.

• Use the following link to download then install the Office update - Office 2003 update
• Once installed use the following link to download and install the Compatibility tool - Office 2003 compatibility tool
• Try the first step again and open a file in Word 2003