Tarq57

This morning, on closing outlook express, it offered to compress files to save space, as it does, and I clicked yes, having done so many times before. After it had finished, I reopened OE to find every email message in all folders had gone. I had already deleted the recycle bin with CCleaner, so no luck there. I've used a software called "Recovery" by Brian Kato, which found a number of .dbx files, but having restored them to a backup folder, am unable to import them to OE; the message says "no messages were found, or they are in use by another program" (they aren't). Also tried running a software by Stompsoft to recover email messages; this program is available via a U3 flash drive. It failed to find any messages. One thing in the "readme" of the "Recovery" program says that recovery of encrypted files on NFTS systems is not supported. Could .dbx files be described as "encrypted" for this purpose? ie is it worthwhile trying CCleaner's "recuva" program for this? I'm not terribly optimistic. If anyone has any ideas of what to do next that might solve the problem, and or knows why it happened or has heard of it happening before, I'd be fairly interested. Some of those files are important. And of course I hadn't got round to backing them up. And system restore was disabled. I have tried restoring a reg backup, but of course, without the files, no go. I am not "blaming" CCleaner for this, in case that's how it reads. I think it's something that went a bit nuts in the OE program, but who knows? Windows XP home, SP2, patched. Athlon 3500+, 2.1GHz, 1G Ram. Thanks.

I'm not sure I understand the question fully, but here's what I think you want to know. If you mean by "with the options I set prior to installing it", that you are upgrading from the previous version, in the settings of the previous version (under options>advanced" tick the checkbox to write the program settings to an ini file. When installing the application the default is to include the Yahoo toolbar. Untick that option. Every time I have installed any version of CCleaner the program defaults are that everything is ticked for cleaning (if no .ini file was kept) via a basic delete method, as opposed to an overwrite. Untick the ones you don't want deleted. Hope that helps.

This happens with my installation also, but only when attempting to clean zero-bytes files. If I manually delete (or erase, with Eraser) any of these, CCleaner works ok. Example: In a limewire "incomplete" (downloads initially go here) folder, sometimes the file can't be downloaded at all. It leaves an entry of the attempted download, which is a zero byte file. (It's something, but less than can be read.) If I then try and clean the folder, bingo CCleaner has encountered a problem and needs to close. Sorry....

I would say that it is not advisable to go by the "top ten reviews" findings. Some of the better applications are not even on the top twenty list. From what I've read and understand, (and see in what "noscript" is blocking on the page) the review is sponsored. Find real life experiences on forums such as this one, or Wilders, for example. Superantispyware, Asquared, AVG AS, and SpywareTerminator, along with good old Spybot, get my vote. All free versions available, the first three have realtime paid for versions, too. This is without considering the more specialist tools, such as Smitrem, or HijackThis.

I've used it for a few years, and currently on this computer use it after every browsing session. (So, maybe 2-4 times daily, 3 passes.) There are some opinions around that performing too many read/write ops to the hard drive (eg mass deletions/excess defragging) can prematurely wear it out, but I've not read anything conclusive about this. Mine is a Seagate, and showing no signs of wear and tear/bad sectors etc.

Click Here Have a read, come back with any more questions. BTW, there are many reasons a computer can slow down. Excess junk files is just one. What I'm saying is, don't be surprised if running CCleaner doesn't solve the problem, though it might.

My experience with a few of these is, "generally, yes." (But absolutely not two of the same type of application.) Some applications have some issues with some others...there are AV's around that are a bit notorious for not "playing well" with other applications. Some combinations seem to give a greater performance hit than others. It can be complex, every computer configuration is different, the best bet is probably to try out the different combinations you want to try. It can be a good idea to google your proposed combo first, for example (refine the search term as you see fit.) http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&q...earch&meta=

Works OK here. But it does leave the index .dat file behind. (Can be manually removed, of course.)

Right click the speaker icon in the system tray, or under sound in the control panel, "adjust audio properties">"sounds", scroll to near the bottom of the list, remove them (select "none".) [edit] Way #2 (my preferred option) disable windows messenger.

KellysKorner has various reg fixes that might do the job. #179 (right) looks promising.

I find it performs very well, but have not had any "nasties" for a long time, so it hasn't recently been put to the acid test. If I ever need to, it will certainly form part of the malware removal. "Traces"? Don't know for sure, but the SpywareTerminator scan has in the past found some traces of old, long ago removed unwanted programs, usually a reg entry. I seem to recall SAS does, too.

Going back to the first post, I get the impression you may be confusing AdAware with an antivirus. It's not, and if you were to try replacing it with Avast while AVG AV is still installed, you would run into trouble. AdAware is an antispyware. In your case, it's what is called a demand scanner, that is, unlike the AV's mentioned, it doesn't monitor your system and scan files in realtime. There are other good alternatives to AdAware that fulfill much the same function. (And in most cases, I believe, do a better job.) Superantispyware Asquared Spybot and here's a free realtime antispyware that I've found very good: Spywareterminator but I have to recommend the standalone version, without the toolbar, and also without the Clam AV integrated, partly because some users have found those add-ons buggy, but mainly because I don't like toolbars. You can pretty much install and run as many demand scanners as you want. Two or three is not a bad idea. One may find something another may not, on any given day. Another may have a better removal engine. The forums and help available for the ones I've linked are all very good. (Unlike those for AdAware, which,as a result, has lost it's rights to my computer, probably forever.) Regarding the AV's, if you want to try something different, try the other/s out. I've done a fair bit of this and settled, very happily, with Avast. The support is excellent, with many very knowledgeable and frequent forum visitors, the application hassle free. But if you want to change just because you want more protection, or you've heard that it's better, there'll be no harm, but it may not offer a significantly better level. A bit difficult to find tests that strongly and consistently indicate one is better than the other. At avcomparatives.org Avast, AVG, and Avira (Antivir) all usually turn in consistently good results. Only the paid versions are tested, though, and there are differences between the abilities of the pay vs the free version. One thing I'll say concerning Avast is that the detection and cleaning engines are identical pay/free. I don't think that's the case with the other two. Bottom line: if you are happy with AVG, can work the interface happily,find it "plays well" on your computer and its programs,and feel confident in the protection and support offered, why remove it?

One way to have Clam work in Vista (32bit only)is to use SpywareTerminator AS, which (optionally) includes Clam AV, and WSG toolbar. (I have installed neither.) Doesn't replace a "normal" AV program however, my understanding is that it used the Clam definitions via the ST scanning engine, which is resident. Some users have reported problems getting Clam to start, I think they are the minority.

I've used the PCPitstop program before, but only the free version, and was able to manually alter/delete a lot of the stuff it said it found, which seemed to make some slight difference. I wouldn't call it crappy, but with a bit of research it's easy to do better for free. To see what's running at startup have a look at the startup tab in msconfig. Most everything there (except security) can be disabled from starting. I've tweaked a little bit, if you can call it tweaking, just by disabling services I don't need (eg error reporting, network help) in accordance with the very well laid out and thorough BlackViper This speeds the startup a bit, and the computer runs a bit slicker. It's a good idea to keep a text or note somewhere to remind yourself what you've done, though, so when you need to troubleshoot something a month or 4 down the track you can easily find out why process x isn't working. Unless you're engaged enough with all the processes to know what's disabled/set to manual/running normally. (That implies a superior quality of geekdom to me.) Other freebise I've tried and found ok to good are Advanced Windows Care by Iobit, TuneXP by Driverheaven, JKDefrag or Auslogics Defragger. (I prefer the former.)

AV: Avast Home, DrWeb Cureit on demand. FW Comodo Immunizing: SpywareBlaster, Spybot bad blocker, MVPS Hosts file. Tweaks (security and performance related) Services disabled according to This guy (Selective) SpywareTerminator (resident) SAS, Asquared, AVG AS, Spybot (demand) CCleaner Various antirootkit (demand) Secunia (online) software inspector, monthly or thereabouts. Maybe a bit OTT, but I've been malware free since using these. No noticeable performance hit.

Once or twice I've had a similar issue, not with AdAware, though. I've found that reinstalling the application, rebooting (as prompted, or even if not prompted) allows it to then be uninstalled.

SpywareBlaster is not a scanner, will not interfere with your other security (except to maybe reduce its' workload), is not resident as such, and consumes no resources after it is installed, except for the occasional update. Which takes all of a minute to update and enable protection, 20 seconds if you're a keyboard whizz. CeeCee has it right.

Jago, seen a lot of these sorts of comments concerning ST's "once was rogue" status. It was de-listed at Spywarewarrior over a year ago, the reason for the original listing were the parent company's past association with a known adware vendor. The program itself has never contained malware. If you're interested, there's an old thread at Wilders concerning this, post 28 is from one of the programs developers and explains the situation fairly well. Old Wilders discussion

OP, How much is too much? If you run too many resident, or startup, or "applications which load a service" type applications, that can cause a performance hit, and with some combinations compatibility issues can cause slowdowns, or worse. Every time you install an application, it takes up disk space, too, but generally only a tiny percentage of the drive. Still, that's a factor for some. Of what you have, I'm also using Spybot, AVG, and SpywareBlaster. All good. (Spyware Blaster uses no resource at all, install, update and forget, pretty much.) I went off AdAware with the 2007 release. Problems, high CPU usage with the service, couldn't register of the forum, uninstalled. I went off Windows Defender when the MS Antispyware (formerly Giant) finally died. I have found Asquared, and Superantispyware rather excellent on demand scanners, and resident (paid) versions are also available. I'm also using the free SpywareTerminator for resident protection and scanning, and have been spyware free since installing it. Comodo Boclean is liked by some as a resident Antitrojan (no scanning.) Tried it; it's fine, decided I didn't need it. As mentioned above, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Or the metric equivalent. (Speaking of bad analogies, there was a program doing the rounds a few months ago called "browser condom". Anyway...) So immunizing, with SpywareBlaster and maybe a hosts file (I use the MVPS and Hostsman), a good two way firewall, a good AV, a resident AS, and having two or three demand scanners just in case is the way I find effective. Others use alternatives, like disk imaging or sandbox applications. There are plenty of ways to stay safe. Do make backups of important stuff. I also recommend the "noscript" add-on for Firefox. What you choose is up to you. Find the applications you like, that have good reviews, that are well supported, and that work well together on your computer.

I defrag less often than I used to, now, but download/move/delete files fairly often, trying out different software, playing around with tweaks etc. So about every two weeks I do a boot defrag with Bootvis, and a full defrag with JKDefrag. This is following a scan/check disk. CCleaner gets used at the end of every browsing session. Avast! and SpywareTerminator auto-update, Comodo Firewall, Firefox and Windows are set to advise me of updates but don't download them, all other applications (SAS, Asquared, AVG AS,SPybot, PG2, the printer, the camera editing program, Java, and Flash player, I update about weekly or two-weekly. Error messages generally only occur following an ill thought out tweak, and are usually explainable. Those that aren't, or recur, I ask for help on a forum like this one. Why should anyone put up with frequent error messages/things not working as they should? Every two weeks or so it gets a full virus scan, one or two full spyware scans, and a rootkit scan. I used to be a bit obsessive compulsive, I guess. Now I'm much more relaxed about it. I believe that to learn to un-f### something, you have to partly f### it up a bit first. [Edit] my computer runs fine, too.

Yeah. Thanks. Already pretty much knew that, which is why I asked the question here, rather than firing a query off to HP.

He says that the printer is an HP Officejet t65. The computer is an Itech...attempting to get model nr now, if that's important... OS= Windows98SE.

OK, thanks. Have sent a message asking for same. Will post back in due course.

Sorry, the link I posted didn't open to the correct extension. TrackMeNot, the Firefox extension, was the intended link. And the original answer stands. It won't remove cookies.

Thanks all, for the replies. I've suggested to him that it's likely to be difficult to find one, install it, and expect everything to work. He's decided to get a new computer. Yippee. Not before time!