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Hello everyone,

I've been at the high tech computer and technology game myself for some 35 years or so…
These days I'm back "working" from home (running my own biz since -94) and looking after our three little kids.

Wow, I'm a lucky guy! Our oldest boy Dylan is 3 yrs old and our Twins; Maya & Sam (girl & boy) are 2 yrs old so I'm a busy man these days.

Feels really good to be 51 this summer and having gone from zero to hero in such a short space of time…

Recently I've had some serious slow downs on my primary PC, a Dell laptop.running XP sp3.

I even ended up losing an external drive… completely wiped due to corruption/crash.
(I found an absolutely excellent software suite with the right tools to reclaim pretty much all of my 75 Gb and bringing the drive back as good as new. Even the free trial was able to tell me within minutes what was on the drive and how I could get it back… I bought the "Enterprise Edition" of "Active FIle Recovery" and also installed a handy HD monitoring applet they supply for free and I'm feeling like a new man… after all the drives I've seen go to waste over the years, in various companies and always having the worry of what if… or when will it die on me… both as a techie and private user).

It also turned out that I was "sharing" my PC with some pretty unwelcome critters such as trojandropper and various trojans and other malware…

Sadly my expensive and cumbersome McAfee "Security Suite" and LavaSoft's ""Adwatch" had let me down really badly.

Since I've been let down by other big names like Norton in the past…
I did some research… and apart from having some stuff removed by running Ad-Aware SE Pro and Spybot Search & Destroy scans, I ended up downloading COMODO Free Firewall and AV suite as well as VIPRE AV trial (from Sunbelt).

I have since purchased a 3 year license for VIPRE which turned out to be very nice and light on resources and quite capable of finding and weeding out quite a few "Critters"… The free COMODO AV did pretty good too and got rid of a few other probs.

Now two weeks later I'm finding myself still running scans that take for ever (approx.1/2 TB including external drives) with various tools and looking at stuff such as "Spyware Doctor" and "Registry Mechanic" from PC Tools to add to my "utility belt".

However, I feel quite opposed to spending more money on more of these tools since most of them including Spyware Doctor are very "gung ho" about their approach both to getting your money quick and about their blanket method of removal of various cookies etc.

I am tempted to spend the money on the "Registry Mechanic" since I don't have time to go trawling through the registry myself these days but…
yesterday I stumbled upon TWO major resources firstly "www.file.net" in Germany and later your good selves at this forum…

So here I am signed up and ready to go to work… the kids are down for a mid-day snooze… I'm all charged up… let's get my dear laptop a proper once over with additional spit & polish… please

Please enjoy reading around in the various Forums. Lottsa Stuff to learn from.

If you are still struggling with clearing up that recent infection have a read here and consider the available assistance.
http://forums.whatthetech.com/Welcome_New_…ers_t34502.html

Any discussion of automated Registry Cleaners would be well informed by reading the important contributions offered by Bill Castner, here: http://forums.whatthetech.com/Regcleaner_t…272#entry418272

And most certainly, any use of Registry Cleaners should be preceded by the use of ERUNT as linked here:
http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?s=…st&p=510835

Having Toddlers around the home as a Stay-At-Home-Dad can be precious!
My similar experience was when I was 40, and this year my youngest has been accepted at two major universities.
Oh my… how time flies.

Best Regards,
Doug

Thanks Doug, I started off with ERUNT and HJT and posted the log in a new topic: "Almost there…". Good reading and advice about registry cleaners, cheers I get the impression that you know how I feel right now with my three little "ANGELS"… Nice going there Doug… Universities huh… I'd be happy to survive 'till they all get to primary school he he. Did you hear about the disk-recovery stuff I mentioned yet? I am totally in awe about that stuff… honestly I thought I was up the creek with years worth of cool stuff including about 7 Gigs worth of MP3 files GONE! =o) The other major recommendation I would give anyone who is interested is the eMailTrackerPro utility which allows you to check, delete, trace, black/white list etc. and report for abuse etc. your emails on the mail server before you commit to any of them using send/receive in my case with Outlook… Better than any anti Spam solution since this way the mail never enters your PC at all unless you want it I'm also enjoying the Caller IP software from the same guys… Shows you all your IP traffic in real time with trace and reporting options etc. All the above are available as functional trial versions with optional registration (no re-install needed). N.B. I'm not affiliated to either… not much time for any type of business these days LOL. I just found these utilities great and reasonably priced… Anyhow, the kiddies are well awake and rearing to let loose again… All the best for now. Flinky

Hiya Flinky,

Good luck with the laptop!

I get the impression that you know how I feel right now with my three little "ANGELS"…
Nice going there Doug… Universities huh… I'd be happy to survive 'till they all get to primary school he he

I enjoyed having friends' toddlers over, since they would entertain each other for brief periods.
Background maintenance work was only slightly increased with more food, clothing, changes, etc…. and a few precious moments when they had each other's attention, giving Dad a much valued break to wash the dishes, laundry, etc.

Yes, primary school was a milestone, as is each and every step.
Then you become a taxi service and short-order cook with way more chirping mouths to feed.
I can't remember too many days when there weren't a few extra mouths around at the table…. and overnights too.
In some instances other parents and I would kid each other about filing for child support.
But in the long-run it balances out and is a joy.

My long term goal as a parent of three boys was for each to reach age 21 without having robbed any banks.
Youngest will be 21 in late June this year and off to university.
So far, so good.
______________________-

I don't spend much forum time discussing utilities like the email related ones you mention.
We all have had experience of annoyance and curiosity regarding spam and unwanted email.
But I just don't promote any "investigative" type utilities, because I've found that too many use them and end up….
… somewhere that they really didn't want to go.

I use Outlook - Rules myself to banish the stuff.
I used mailwasher for a while a few years back and I'm still happy with that utility.

As far as tracking down the bad guys, there are simply more bad guys than I have time or inclination to track.
And like I said above, other less experienced members may suffer from too many "clickety-clicks" when exploring.
So I generally stay silent.
Enjoy yourself and don't hesitate to ask questions as necessary.

Doug

Hiya NEO… fancy finding you in here…

The laptop is working pretty good again thanks but I'm still looking for some hoops to run her through to make sure we're out of the Matrix and back in the real world… or NOT… ?

Btw, one of the pieces of software used for a lot of the Digtal Compositing and Post Production work in the 2nd and 3rd movies about your "home".. "Fusion" (previously known as "Digital Fusion" was my speciality back then… I'm willing to bet I might have taught some tricks to some of the guys involved in the work… way back when.

Doug,

I see that we have much in common, except you're well ahead with the "kiddies" by now…. your youngest lad turning 21… now that's some result Doug, you da man

I'm enjoying myself royally with our little ones… so no worries there

It really is a great way to have it for a dad to be able to take part in all of the early developments etc. I missed out on my own dad completely between 1.5 and around 6 years of age and after that got to see him once or twice a year at best (long story) but it worked out fine though

So being here with my kids right now… is extra precious…. therefore I don't really have the time to get fully back into the software "game" again… or to spend days and days with unsatisfactory cleaning and or protection utilities.

Anyhow… I agree with you that going about the big bad world with a little bit of "knowledge" can be quite risky in the black arts arena of computing… and easy access via the net (or Matrix eh… - Neo).

So your advice is very sound.

Perhaps I'll find myself some nice target (read: evil doer…) and hit back some day but until then it's more in the name of being a very curious as well as quite an able person with a reasonably good knowledge of this stuff acquired at the leading edge… over many years.

BUT… in the computer hardware/software business you close your eyes for a good night's sleep and you wake up and the stuff you knew is old hat already…

So again Doug, your advice is REALLY GOOD, thanks buddy!

To get software with clever dials and buttons to go and do lots of stuff you don't understand yourself… BAD IDEA!!! I AGREE…

Still I don't like not knowing what's what and why… never did…

AND most importantly I like to have at least some control… over my own stuff…

Our friends at MicroSuck have certainly tried to obfuscate stuff pretty well over the years… I still remember the first versions of DOS… and then Windows arrived ("GEM" eat your heart out) but then again… they got the work done and our PCs humming… so cudos to Bill and the guys. If for nothing else but the hours of fun we had playing Solitaire

Back to reality and my problem at hand… I'm hoping for a bit of up-to-date advice re. quick but able scan and fix (if necessary) utilities… in the proper professional area without the fancy GUI yearly upgrade fees and other bloated costs and/or promises…

I always found that you need more than one or two tools to get your house in order in this game.

So with a bit of your help guys… I'll get back to playing some occasional online poker and doing some Digital art, Video and Animation and other FUN stuff etc…. on the few occasions when our kids are sleeping…. shhhhh. (…and I'm NOT!)

…Happy in the knowledge that I've done my bit to make my dear (read: expensive…) PC reasonably safe and sound again.

BTW, Some of the advice you pointed me to in your last post Doug… got me thinking… the MicroSuck update service… then I remembered… IE8 was set for download and install in my automatic updates in the last week or so…

It never actually did for some reason… Didn't bother me much since I'm a Firefox user these days but the fact that it never finished the job is now making me wonder… did one of my wee "critters" (malware) prevent the download?

So I've now gone to the MS update service and manually run their check on what I might be missing…
Guess what… I'm getting IE8 and an extensive .NET framework servicepack and updates.

Your Forum really rocks guys.

Cheers 4 now,

Flinky

Hello Flinky and

Hope you enjoy our forums and learn heaps too.

Regards,
Jkc73

Flinky. You have joined a great forum - so much to read and learn plus a whole bunch of really friendly and helpful people.

Enjoy!

Satchfan

Doug

Can I also use this to thank you for the interesting and informative article - great reading

SF