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Having problems with spyware, viruses (trojan, worms etc..) and or adware? Post a question in our forum, or browse the answers - take a look registration is free! Malware Solutions Forum

Burlington Vermont's First Overnight Boat Cruise on Lake Champlain

Press Release: Burlington, Vermont June 6, 2007

Overnight Cruise Boat To Make Vermont's Lake Champlain Its Home

Green Mountain Boat Lines, operators of the Spirit of Ethan Allen III in Burlington, Vermont, announced the arrival of the Moonlight Lady, the first overnight cruise boat on Lake Champlain. The Moonlight Lady is a 65 foot custom built passenger yacht that will offer exciting 1 and 3 night Vermont vacation excursions. "The journeys are designed to have guests experience the ever changing natural beauty and abundant recreational opportunities available in and around the lake", states owner Mike Shea. The Lady's top deck, with it's teak deck furniture will accommodate up to 30 for special functions. The main deck houses eight staterooms, with private shower rooms, and a forward lounge. The varnished mahogany lower deck lounge features a wet bar and a piano to enhance the mood and inspire sing-a-longs. Vermont's local seasonal products will be the focal point for the on-board chef's creative menus.

"The Moonlight Lady will offer many options to chart their own boat cruise adventure. Whether it is sitting on deck taking in the sights and sounds with a beverage and a good book or taking advantage of the many port-of-call options, such as; golf, tennis, kayaking, biking and spa elements. The journey on the Moonlight Lady will have you Relaxed, Refreshed, Recharged and Reconnected", Shea explains.

Launch of Moonlight Lady to be part of the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival

A press conference will take place on June 12 at 1:30 aboard The Spirit of Ethan Allen III to formally announce the the Moonlight Lady. Her official launch will take place as part of the festivities of the 2nd annual Lake Champlain Maritime Festival on the Burlington, Vermont Waterfront August 17 - 19. For more information on the festival:

Lake Champlain Maritime Festival

For more information about Burlington, Vermont vacation boat cruises go to VermontMoonLightLady.com

Vermont Website Design Blog Created

This blog was originally created to help with the ongoing battle against viruses, spyware and adware. Since then it has begun to grow into something a bit less focused. As you can see I began throwing 'website design' topics around which doesn't really fit with the topic of the blog. The solution: create another blog!

So here you have it - vermont-website-design.blogspot.com.

The plan for this blog is to write about anything related to web design that I come across that might be helpful for someone just beginning to learn html, xhtml, css, and JavaScript. For example: one of my latest posts is about the .png fix for Internet Explorer 6 and another is about how to show/hide (toggle) divs using CSS and JavaScript.

If I find a good website design tip during my travels into the ever-changing world of html I will post it at vermont-website-design.blogspot.com

New Website Design Project

My next website design project is for a boat called 'Moonlight Lady'. The boat is located on Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont and will offer small boat overnight cruises. The project files will be located here. This project is expected to go live by the end of June 07.

10 Free Ways To Help Prevent Malware Threats

It seems that every day there is a new virus, spyware or adware threat. What are you doing to protect your personal data and identity? Here are ten free ways which can help a home user can protect his/her personal computer from online malware threats.



read more | digg story

New Version of Malware.Solutions.com / VPCSolutions.com

I have decided to re-design my website MalwareSolutions.com. The new site will be fully XHTML compliant and will use 'tableless design' using CSS. I started the re-build about two weeks ago and I am still on the homepage. Lots to be done! If you would like to see the work in progress you can follow along at vermontpcsolutions.com/web_design.html - once on this page click 'Client Login' then without entering a username or password click 'Login'. I will add the newest version of the site to the top of this list. I will be removing older versions as they eventually will be just a waste of Internet 'space'.

If you have any comments or suggestions please let me know.

Two New Free Tools Added - Anti-Spyware & Anti-Rootkit

I added two new free pieces of software to the Malware Solutions online arsenal.

The first is free rootkit detection and software from Grisoft (yes, the makers of AVG Anti-Virus). The name of the product is AVG Anti-Rootkit Free. You can find it on our Free Anti-Virus Software page.

Here is what AVG has to say about their own product:

"AVG Anti-Rootkit is a powerful tool with state-of-the-art technology for detection and removal of rootkits. Rootkits are used to hide the presence of a malicious object like trojans or keyloggers on your computer. If a threat uses rootkit technology to hide itself it is very hard to find the malware on your PC. AVG Anti-Rootkit gives you the power to find and delete the rootkit and to uncover the threat the rootkit is hiding."

The second application is also from Grisoft. I am talking about AVG Anti-Spyware.

"AVG Anti-Spyware Free is a free anti-spyware protection tool developed by GRISOFT for home use. We invite you to join the millions of satisfied customers worldwide who have downloaded the software and now enjoy the benefits of AVG Anti-Spyware Free."

You can download AVG Anti-Spyware Free from Free Anti-Spyware Software page

What you get with AVG Anti-Spyware Free

	Easy to use
	Daily database updates
	Heuristics to detect unknown threats
	Automatic Cleaning Engine
	And most of all ... great customer satisfaction!

What you do not get

	Automatic online-update
	Real-time monitoring of the entire system
	Self-protection at kernel layer guaranteeing gapless monitoring
	Consent for commercial use

If you are wondering what a Rootkit is then read on....

"A rootkit is a set of software tools intended to conceal running processes, files or system data from the operating system. Rootkits have their origin in relatively benign applications, but in recent years have been used increasingly by malware to help intruders maintain access to systems while avoiding detection. Rootkits exist for a variety of operating systems, such as Linux, Solaris and versions of Microsoft Windows. Rootkits often modify parts of the operating system or install themselves as drivers or kernel modules.

The word "rootkit" came to general public awareness in the 2005 Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal, in which Sony BMG music CDs surreptitiously placed a rootkit on Microsoft Windows PCs when the CD was played on the computer. Sony provided no mention of this on the CD or its packaging, referring only to security rights management measures."
What is a Rootkit?

How To Remove Spy Sherrif

Here is how to remove Spy Sherrif: (adapted from a post in MalwareSolution's Forum

1. Download SmitfraudFix.exe from here and save it to your desktop:

Confirm that the file SmitfraudFix.exe now resides on your desktop, but do not double-click on the icon as of yet. We will use it in later steps.


2. Next, please reboot your computer into Safe Mode by doing the following:

-- 1. Restart your computer

-- 2. After hearing your computer beep once during startup, but before the Windows icon appears, press F8.

-- 3. Instead of Windows loading as normal, a menu should appear

-- 4. Select the first option, to run Windows in Safe Mode.

-- 5. When you are at the logon prompt, log in as the same user which you had done the previous steps.

3. When your computer has started in safe mode and you see the desktop.

4. Close all open Windows.

5. Now, double-click on the SmitFraudfix icon that should be residing on your desktop.

6. When the tool first starts you will see a credits screen. Simply press any key on your keyboard to get to the next screen.

7. Press the number 2 on your keyboard and the press the enter key to choose the option Clean (safe mode recommended).

8. The program will start cleaning your computer and go through a series of cleanup processes. When it is done, it will automatically start the Disk Cleanup program.

This program will remove all Temp, Temporary Internet Files, and other files that may be leftover files from this infection. This process can take up to a few hours depending on your computer, so please be patient. When it is complete, it will close automatically and you will should continue with step 10.

9. When Disk Cleanup is finished, you will be presented with an option asking Do you want to clean the registry ? (y/n). At this screen you should press the Y button on your keyboard and then press the enter key.

10. When this last routine is finished, you will be presented with a red screen stating Computer will reboot now. Close all applications. You should now press the spacebar on your computer. A counter will appear stating that the computer will reboot in 15 seconds. Do not cancel this countdown and allow your computer to reboot.

11. Once the computer has rebooted, you will be presented with a Notepad screen containing a log of all the files removed from your computer. Examine this log, and when you are done, close the Notepad screen.

Your computer should now be free of the Spy Sheriff infection.

Free Anti-Virus & Anti-spyware Software for Windows Vista

Good news! I learned that AVG Anti-Virus, Spybot Search & Destroy and AdAware run on Windows Vista! The best part about these programs are that they are free to download.

You can find a full list of free anti-virus software here

You can find a full list of free anti-spyware products here

New Sites Launched

I launched a new site a few days ago. Take a look:

Pathways To Well Being

I also setup a page for my web design services:

Web Design Services

This one went up a few weeks ago:

Onion River Chiropractic

How To Remove: Trojan Downloader Zlob.Media-Codec

How To Remove: Trojan Downloader Zlob.Media-Codec Overview: Trojan-Downloader.Zlob.Media-Codec disguises as required upgrade software for Windows Media Player to be able to view adult videos online. It contains malicious codes that downloads a variant of Trojan.Zlob which is the culprit for Rogue Antispyware Programs such as SpywareQuake, SpyFalcon Winfixer and others. Category: Malware/Adware Related Files and Process: %program_files%\intcodec\iesplugin.dll %program_files%\IntCodec\iesuninst.exe %program_files%\IntCodec\isaddon.dll %program_files%\IntCodec\isamini.exe %program_files%\IntCodec\isamonitor.exe %program_files%\IntCodec\isauninst.exe %program_files%\IntCodec\pmmon.exe %program_files%\intcodec\pmsngr.exe %program_files%\IntCodec\pmuninst.exe

Download SmitfraudFix and save it to a desired location. This will be in ZIP File. Extract all the files to your Desktop, it will create a folder SmitfraudFix. Note: When extracting or executing, some files might be detected as Potential Threat or Harmful Script. Please disable AntiVirus or Any Script Blocking Software temporarily. It may harm or make the Fix incomplete. Temporarily disable System Restore (WinME and Windows XP) [how?] Reboot your computer in SafeMode [how?] Browse the folder SmitfraudFix on your Desktop and double-click on smitfraudfix.cmd “Enter your Choice: (1,2,3,4,L,Q):” Press no. 2 to clean to the infections. Wait for the process to finish. If prompted for: Registry cleaning - Do you want to clean the registry? Press Y, as Yes It will check if your wininet.dll file is damaged, if so it will ask you to Replace Infected File? Press Y as Yes and hit Enter. In order to make sure that Adware is completely eliminated from your computer, carry out a full scan of your computer using AntiVirus and Antispyware Software. Another way to detect the virus using various Scanner Program without the need to install can be done with Free Online Virus Scanner. http://www.vermontpcsolutions.com

Updated: How To Remove Spyware

Spyware, Adware, Malware, Badware....whatever you choose to call it, it's a problem. Chances are that you or someone you know has or will experience some sort of 'ware' infection on a computer and it can be frustrating.



What is spyware?
Spyware is malicious software that collects information about a user and is installed on a computer without the user's informed consent. Not to be confused with a virus.
There are many different types of spyware.

• Adware - is a type of spyware that collects information about a user in order to display targeted advertisments to the user.


• Browser Helper Objects (BHOs) - is a plug-in for Internet Explorer which helps developers customize and control the browser.


• Browser HiJacker - is when a malicious application adjusts your browser settings without your concent. For example: your homepage has changed to a search page, dangerous sites have been mysteriously added to your Favorites, questionable websites are added to Internet Explorer's list of Trusted Sites etc...


• Keyboard Logger - logs all the activity of your keyboard and reports this information back to a remote computer. This information can be used to steal passwords, bank information etc...


• Phone Dialer - AKA - Modem HiJacker - this type of application changes the phone number dialed when using a dial-up Internet connection so charges are incurred on the users phone bill.


• Remote Access Trojans (RATs) - malicious programs that run on a user's computer which permits an intruder remote access to that computer.

How do I know if my computer is infected? What are the signs of spyware?

• slower than normal computer? - Is your computer having trouble performing routine tasks? Has there been a sudden increase in the amount of times your computer crashes? Does your computer not start at all?


• homepage has changed by itself? - Has your homepage been hijacked? Does it open to a search page that you did not specify?


• pop-ups driving you crazy? - Do they appear as soon as you turn on your computer? Are they for adult websites? Some spyware will bombard you with popups that aren't even related to the website you are visiting.


• browser settings have changed and you can't change them back? - When you open up Internet Explorer does it open to a search page that you did not specify?


• new browser toolbars installed - but not by you? - Is there a mysterious toolbar installed on your browser?


• phone bill sky-rocketed - Do you see charges on your phone bill for adult websites or 1-900 numbers?


• unexpected new or new icons in your system tray? - Are there applications running on your computer that you did not install?

Now that you know a bit about what spyware is and how to tell if a computer is infected, let's get down to the removal process. First things first - backup your personal data! You should be doing this regularly anyway. Using Windows XP - Click Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools, and then click Backup to start the wizard.



To remove spyware/adware you need two programs (maybe three). The two I recommend are SpyBot Search & Destroy and AdAware. SpyBot Search & Destroy can be found here www.safer-networking.org. AdAware can be found at this address www.lavasoftusa.com. The Third is an application called HiJackThis (which can be found here www.spywareinfo.com). Be warned, HiJackThis is for advanced user, the is a powerful tool! Consult the program's documentation before deleting any files, you could cause serious system damage if you do not know what you are doing.



Download, install and update the programs. Then restart the computer and tap the
F8 key on your keyboard as the computer begins to start - this will give you the
option of starting in 'Safe Mode'. You will see a few other options here as well.
For this particular job select 'Safe Mode'.

What is Safe Mode? Safe Mode is an alternate way of starting a computer using only the bare minimum of resources. It's a troubleshooting tool built into indows based operating systems.



If a computer is running in Safe Mode you should see that the screen resolution looks 'off', which is perfectly normal, and you should see the words 'Safe Mode' in the corners of the screen.

Run full system scans with both programs. They should be able to find the problems and remove them. To learn how to remove a particular item using SpyBot and/or AdAware consult each program's 'Help' documentation.



Next, restart the computer in "normal mode" and see what happens. If you are still experiencing problems start the computer in Safe Mode again and run the spyware scans once more. Make sure that the spyware definitions are up-to-date for each program before using Safe Mode. This will give you the maximum advantage when trying to detect and remove malware.



There is another tool built into Windows called MSCONFIG which I use quite often when troubleshooting spyware.

What is MSCONFIG? MSCONFIG is a special tool built into the Windows operating system (not included with Windows 95 and 2000) called “Microsoft System Configuration Utility” or “MSCONFIG”. MSCONFIG is designed to help you troubleshoot problems with your computer such it being slow, frequent crashes, as well as to remove spyware and viruses. As you may already know, running many programs at once will cause your computer performance to slow down. Don't forget, Windows also runs many programs in the background that you never see, you can use MSCONFIG to prevent some of programs from loading at startup which can greatly increase the speed at which your computer runs.

To access MSCONFIG Click Start, then click Run and type “MSCONFIG” or "msconfig"
(without the quotes), in the window that opens. Once MSCONFIG opens you will see
6 to 8 tabs (depending on which operating system you are using) which provide
access to various parts and processes that Windows uses. The tab you are interested
in is on the far right, it s called “Startup”. It controls which processes start
automatically when Windows loads. If this is the first time you are running MSCONFIG
you may notice that the list of start up items is quite long. You will see four
columns: the first is a column of check boxes, the second is the name of start
up item, the third is where the item is located on the hard drive and the fourth
is the registry location.



To remove an item from the start up menu remove the check mark from the corisponding check box. To instruct a process to run on start up put a check mark in the box.



By now you might be asking, "Which processes are safe to remove?" This is where it gets tricky. An easy way to determine whether a startup item is needed or not is to do a Google search for the process name and see you if you can safely remove the item from the start up menu. Many autostart entries are crucial part of Windows XP, for example: Userinit.exe and Explorer.exe, so don't remove these.



Once the computer is clean you should follow these tips to keep spyware and adware off your machine.

• Install anti-spyware software before you get infected


• Install a software firewall - a firewall acts as a barrier between your computer and the Interent, you can find many free for personal use - software firewalls. ZoneAlarm is a great free choice and can be found here www.zonelabs.com.


• Keep Microsoft Windows Up-To-Date - with Windows Update. Microsoft often releases software patches which you can download and install to help prevent malicious software from being installed on your PC.


• Stay away from questionable Websites! - you know what I am talking about!


• Use a secure Web Browser - such as Mozilla Firefox

When troubleshooting a computer with spyware problems the most important thing is to remain patient. I have personally removed over 30,000 infected files from computers over the past two years. I have had a 100% success rate thus far using the methods described above!



Good Luck!

Author: Michael McKennedy - http://www.MalwareSolutions.com



Resources:

http://www.malwaresolutions.com/what_is_spyware.html

http://www.malwaresolutions.com/tools_spyware.html

http://www.malwaresolutions.com/how_to_remove_spyware.html

http://www.malwaresolutions.com/how_to_use_msconfig.html

http://www.malwaresolutions.com/how_to_backup_files.html

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MalwareSolutions.com

The new website has gone live. It's been completely rebuilt again. I am getting great results with the new format and layout. Seems like people are having a much easier time locating the free anti-virus/spyware removal software and advice.

If you are looking for a way to remove viruses for free go here for free anti-virus software

Trying to get rid of spyware? - click here for free spyware removal tools

Sunday, June 25, 2006

I have been focusing most of my attention on websites. This is one that I have been actively working on www.creativequestvt.org

My own site is coming along as well. I have been focusing on gathering as much information about virus removal and free anti-virus software as I can find. The goal is to enable users to help themselves in removing viruses and spyware from their infected computers. Another focus is to look at the preventative side of things. Not only do I want people to be able to repair their computers for free that's why we offer free virus repair plus many links to free resources about removing viruses from an infected PC. The goal is to educate about viruses and spyware that's why we have added a few new pages What is a virus? and What is spyware?

You can now search our site for free virus removal tools - search by virus name.


I have been getting a lot of feedback lately from people who have found all of this free information useful. Therefore, here is a sitemap of VPC Solutions.com.

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