Good Routine for Spyware and Viruses Removal

Here is a list of things you can do to help diagnose and fix problems associated with viruses and spyware.  Hopefully you have been running an anti virus program and have been keeping it updated, if not then these steps can probably help fix a spyware/virus problem.

1. Go into Add/Remove programs, and remove all unwanted entries, and toolbars.  If you are not sure what something is, google it.
2. Go into MSConfig (got to RUN and type: msconfig)>, go to startup tab, remove all unwanted and suspicious entries.
3. Download Ad-Aware free edition (DO NOT INSTALL YET)
4. Download Spybot S&D. (DO NOT INSTALL YET)
5. Download Hijackthis (DO NOT INSTALL YET)
6. Download ccleaner (DO NOT INSTALL YET)
7. After all of these are downloaded, turn off  the System Restore feature then reboot into safe mode (hit F8 before the Windows screen). Read the rest of this entry »

How to control Windows with Apple Remote Desktop

If you do not want to use the Microsoft Remote Desktop application as detailed here. You can do the following to allow you to control Windows via Apple’s Remote Desktop application.

Install RealVNC Server (www.realvnc.com or www.tightvnc.com) on your Windows PC.

Once installed it will appear in the tray area of the taskbar or in your program files, select options and set a password, and adjust any necessary settings.

Now on Apple Remote Desktop you can connect to the Windows PC via the IP address. You will have remote control and view capabilities but no other Apple Remote Desktop features such as remote install.

Removing the hiberfil.sys

By default Windows Vista and Server 2008 have a hibernation file equal to the size of the amount of memory you are using. Of you have 12GB of RAM, that will be a 12GB hiberfil.sys. If you are using a small SSD, that would be a killer waste. Removing this file is a quick way to free up HD space, although considering how cheap drives are, you could always upgrade. Furthermore if you are using a virtual machine, you probably don’t need this space wasted either.

Now I do not know why they do this on the Server version since who hibernates a server (that being said I am sure some people probably do, silly tree huggers). The real bugger with this problem is that shutting off hibernation does not always remove the hiberfil.sys file. Alternatively, what if you want to remove it without needing to reboot the server. I found a very fast and simple way to do this is to launch a command prompt as an administrator and run the following command:
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Vista x64 Displays Wrong Physical Memory Size

This is a crazy little problem in Windows Vista x64 that shows the wrong information when the System Information (msinfo32.exe) is run. This issue occurred on a computer that was upgraded from 4GB of DDR3 (4x1GB) ram to 8GB (4x2GB) of DDR3, running Windows Vista Ultimate x64.

What happened is the Installed Physical Memory displayed correctly at 8.00GB, but the Total Physical Memory only reported as 4.00GB and Available Physical Memory reported as 5.22GB. View the screenshot of this output below.

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Remote Control Windows XP from a MAC

There are other ways to do this but this is the simplest and only requires installing 1 application.

1. Download and install the Remote Desktop Connection application for MAC.
2. On your XP machine, right click My Computer and select properties.
3. Select ‘Allow users to connect remotely to this computer’
4. Get the IP address of your XP machine (open  a command prompt and type ipconfig)
5. Back on your MAC, launch the Remote Desktop Connection program and connect using the IP found in step.

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