The Circle

It was first year at college. i was browsing the net and came upon this blog by shrutz. It was called Brain Freeze. shrutz was a senior at college. final year electronics. this blog served as inspiration for starting a blog. she blogged about CAT exam, how she got 5 or so calls from IIMs, and finally got admission into iimb. after she left cet she stoped posting at brain freeze and started a new blog. she has posts on the gd an interviews. i should say shes too good.

now here i am with a blog and 3 calls a,c,k. this is all that i want to say about cat....

and there will be posts on what happens at the gd/interviws if they spare my life if not pride

virus says lets play a game

I was having a free life until recently, i mean computer viruses..

The only exception was during schooldays. the virus attack made windows un-bootable. There was just one drive and i lost all data. A computer expert was brought in. We had to pay some 200 bucks or so. its the last time my family spent money for a software related problem.

First i used avg anti virus which is free. but as its scan was a little disruptive, i switched to the wonderful NOD32. light and efficient. until....

Most of the computers in and around our college had the thb virus. It got into my computer too. My beloved NOD32 failed me. Though there was a step by step procedure for removing the virus i decided to play with it manually. I succeded. I finally switched to Kaspersky. If it weren't for the thb virus i would still prefer NOD32.

Then there was mother's computer at office. it had 2 viruses. no anti-virus installed. i took out the tooth of both the viruses. but i couldn't remove it completely due to lack of information. It still can wag its tail. All this fun with viruses helped me come across some good tips and software.


Softwares first:

1. Winpatrol - it runs in the taskbar. light. warns when there is changes made to the registry. it enables you to control the startup items and a lot more. no need to go to msconfig or task manager. informaation on each entry available.
   
2. Unlocker - I have often seen "cannot delete the file coz its currently being used" with unlocker u can find all the "locking handles" and u can kill the process from there.
3. Regsupreme - it is available as trial. it can clean the registry. just remember not to run it in aggresive mode.
4. Norton removal tool - provided by Norton itself. removes norton softwares. needed if you want to install another antivirus. i cant understand why it cant be part of the uninstall tool. alternately u can use "unlocker+delete folder+regsupreme(not recommended"
5. Zonealarm - Firewall. i can't live without it. though some complains that its hard on system resources

Tips.

1. Safe Mode - booting in safe mode is a very useful tool in fighting viruses. some viruses don't work in safe mode. you can poke them from there. a previous unsuccessful boot will bring up the option for safe mode. but use F8 key during bootup to get a safe mode option. really handy.

2. run>regedit to get into registry and edit values there. use with caution. if u don't have access to regedit run>gpedit.msc. in there user configuration>administrative templates>system. change the "prevent access to registry editing tools" to get access to regedit

3. if the virus has made it impossible to use "show hidden files and folders" options, you can always use search>more advanced options tick "search hidden files and folders" and search. remember that '*' stands for multiple characters and '?' for a single chartacter.
???.exe will get all executable 3 letters long.
*.* will give all files
*.exe gives all executable files
you can use a combination of them too.

the correct solution for the above problem is available at Technize.

4. run>cmd will bring the command prompt. a complete list of commands is available here. But you can manage with the following

dir - lists the files and folders in the current directory/folder. wont display hidden,
dir /a - lists all the files and folders in the current directory/folder.

if when you start you see this
c:\documents and settings\abcd>
it shows the folder you are currently in.
if you want to go into a folder in here "cd folder_name"
if you need to go up, "documents and settings" here "cd.."
to go to root,ie c here, "cd\"
simply type "g:" to go to another drive. replace g with the one you need.


del for deleting files

attrib - Very useful. It Changes attributes of files which are

• R - Read-only
• A - Archive
• S - System
• H - Hidden
  

use "attrib filename -h -s -r" (removes hidden system and read-only attributes) to bring the file to the open and hence deletable.

5. keep "hide extensions for known file types" always unticked. you can access it at tools>folder options>view just under the show hidden files options. it will help you spot many viruses, especially the ones with icons of folder which makes you mistake it for a folder. "new folder.exe" is an example.

6. Always have a linux live cd(recommended: Ubuntu) and a friend who understands linux. see here

more updates and corrections later, like naming folders with virus names to stop them.....

if u have any suggestions or corrections plz do comment. I am learning....

Disclaimer: i never keep any important documents in c drive. if i do anything really stupid i can always reinstall windows. So use these with discretion. but then, easiest way to not to fall is by falling.