A poster on the Technibble forums recently mentioned that his client wanted him to provide and install pirate software onto their computer. He also mentioned that in his part of the world (the middle east) that pirate software is very common and readily available.

He asked our community whether he was handicapping his business by hesitating to provide pirate software when all the other technicians were doing it. It was a good question with a simple answer.
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Most techs with a few years of experience under their belt have probably come across the Windows XP corrupted registry hive problem at some point in their career. When it happens, Windows wont start and will present one of these messages:

• Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
• Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE
• Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate

In most cases, Safe mode wont work either. The uniform approach to fixing this is by getting into the Windows XP repair console and manually replacing the file with the copy that was created when the system was first installed. However, any software or drivers (depending on whether it was SOFTWARE or SYSTEM that failed) that was installed after that point may not work since the registries for them hadnt been installed back then.

Here is my method that I have been using to fix this. It reverts the registry to only a few days earlier rather than back to when Windows was first installed.
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SmitFraudFix is a free, stand alone utility designed to remove resilient hijack malware. There are many types of malware out there that your standard antivirus and antispyware products cannot remove because its files are in use or as soon as one of the malware files is deleted, another part recreates it.

I personally use this tool a lot when clients computers are infected with those fake antiviruses which are hard to remove (eg. VirusBlast, AntiSpyCheck, TitanShield Antispyware, WinAntiSpyPro etc). This tool is essential for any technician doing virus removal work. For a list of what it removes, read on.
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We just got word from one of our readers that ZoneAlarm Forcefield will be free for this Tuesay (August 12th) at 6am PST. Normally Forcefield costs $29.99 to purchase which includes a years worth of subscription updates. The offer is valid for 24 hours after the launch.

For those of you who dont know what it is, ZoneAlarm Forcefield is a virtualization system that isolates your browser from the computer. If your browser did fall victim to an exploit or you are tricked into opening something you shouldnt, your computer is safe because the malware cannot touch your computers actual files or registry items.

ZAFF also attempts to stop sites from stealing your personal information. While in this virtualization “bubble”, ZAFF includes technology to jam keyloggers and block programs that snatch screenshots while you are surfing.

To download ZoneAlarm Forcefield, goto the following site on August 12th after 6am PST:

http://www.zonealarm.com/patchtuesday

Edit: Offer is now available for download. You might want to use a service like 10MinuteMail.com because it requires you to enter an email address so they can “periodically send you promotional offers”.

Special thanks to Gary for letting us know about this. If anyone else hears about similar freebies they would like to share with the Technibble community, please email us via our contact form.

Have you ever had a clingy customer?
A clingy customer is generally categorized as someone who calls you very frequently about small problems they could have figured out themselves; or call you at inappropriate times.
So why don’t we just get rid of them?
Because often they are often our “bread and butter client” and generate a lot of work for us, so we want to look after them.
Here is a guide on how to deal with these clingy customers.
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As Technicians, we love our USB thumb drives. It makes it so easy to carry all or computer repair utilities and keep it updated with the latest antivirus definitions. However, being so small it is also easy to accidently leave at a clients place, especially if the only USB ports on their computer are in the back.

This is where LostDrive can help. LostDrive is a small tool set to autorun on your USB drive and when it is plugged in, the autorun will say “Help Im Lost!” and if chosen, it will launch a user configurable message. The point of this is so you can set this message to something like “If found, please return to…”. If they see that the device is plugged in via “My Computer” and click on its drive icon it will also launch this message.
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A few weeks ago we mentioned the website Virustotal.com which is a website that scans a certain file for viruses using the databases of many different antivirus brands. This week, we will be listing many other websites that are handy to technicians.
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I am sure that most of the technicians here have heard about “Spyware Doctor” by PC Tools at some point. If you haven’t, Spyware Doctor is a free spyware remover and provides real-time protection against spyware, adware, browser hijackers, trojan horses, key loggers etc.
From a Technicians point of view its a great tool to run on clients computers since it uses little computer resources and is effective at catching most spyware.

Anyway, we have discovered a way that you can get free legitimate Spyware Doctor licenses via one of their special promotions. Also, although I haven’t used their other products personally, you can also get free licenses for some of their other products at the same time. “Privacy Guardian” and “Firewall Plus”.

Read on for instructions on how to get your free genuine licenses. Grab them fast because I don’t know how much longer this offer will be available.
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The Crucial System Scanner is a freeware tool that scans your computer for what type and how much RAM it currently has in it and what your options are for installing more RAM.

Although the makers of this tool intended for it to be used to so you can buy the right type of RAM in their brand (Crucial). Its a really handy way to find out what type of RAM a certain motherboard can take. This tool can be an absolute godsend with laptop motherboards than tend to be a little sensitive to what type of RAM they can take.
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The other day I misdiagnosed a computer problem. It rarely happens to me but it does happen. I was working on a computer inside a large residential building that frequently call me as new residents move in and find they are unable to connect to the buildings free internet. This is what happened and this is how I dealt with a misdiagnosis.
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