9:09 AM February 20, 2007
Someone bought me their computer to clean out. They had a problem with popup ads and the computer freezing up. Discovered right of what the problem was. NO ANTIVIRUS OR ADWARE BUSTING PROGRAMS!!
It took awile to clean everything out and even then there where things not working properly. For example, I could not bring up the TASK MANAGER. Usually I do this by right-clicking on the task bar and choosing Task Manger from the menu. Pressing ALT + CTRL + DELETE is supposed to have the same effect.
After a internet search, I was convinced the system was still infected. I found some info on deleting some other files on the system that may be malware. Deleting them solved the problem.
I think most of this could of been avoided with a simple anti-virus program and an anti-spyware program.
If you can't afford a commercial package, a quick internet search reveals theses free programs:
Been using the latest version of MSN MESSENGER LIVE (MSN 8). It keep freezing up and cutting off, as far as I was concerned, because of the usual Microsoft BLOAT. I managed to download a version of MSN version 7.5 Portable, unfortunately, can't remember the download site, I'll post it if I find it again. Basically it was version 7.5. It cleared up most of the problems.
Newer doesn't necessary mean better, especially on an older system like mine.
Then I had another call from someone not being able to use there MSN. It would not even start up, unfortunately in this case the program would not even give out any error message, so no indication of where the problem may be.
Ran two separate virus scans with two separate programs, detected nothing. So I downloaded the latest version of MSN, from Microsoft, but it wouldn't even install. Adware programs wouldn't run either, so I downloaded Windows Defender, Microsoft’s anti spyware program, still wouldn't install.
My only clue was when I tried to run Adawre, and a error keep coming up about a file called RICHED20.DLL, I ran a search on the computer and found 4 instances of the file on the system. I assumed one must be corrupted, so I went online to download a new version (they didn't have the Windows install CD and I assumed that the files on the system weren’t working properly).
Program error......missing a .dll file, try this site www.dlldump.com
After downloading the file, my question was where to save it. I would have to copy it one at a time to each folder individually until the problem was solved. But my first instinct was to copy it to the System32 folder in Windows (C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32), even though there was no copy of the file found there originally. My first shot was lucky. it cleared up the problems. How the file got deleted in the first place, don't know, and right now, don't matter.
I went to scan through the cookies that built up in Opera and decided to clean them out. I didn't want to delete the ones I recognize, like, from Google.ca.
I set up my preferences through their search engine and this is where the preferences are saved. To set preferences on the Google site,
And We all know what a nuscience it is to have to reset things over and over. Anyway, I discovered that I could not delete some of the cookies. Either these sites found a way to make their cookies undeletable or a flaw in Opera, I don't know.
By the way, to see or delete the cookies in Opera, simply click on Tools at the top menu, then Advanced, and Cookies
There are programs and utilities that can clean them out completely, but having to download program after program to do something that the web browser should be able to do anyway...I decided on another alternative.
Different web browsers store cookies in many ways. Opera stores cookies in a single file called cookies4.dat. I know I would loose them all, but I decided to delete the file. Opera will recreate the file the next time you start Opera (of course cookie free...until you go online again anyway).
There are instances where Opera can install different items in different folders. On my system the file was found in:
C\Program Files\Opera\profile\cookies4.dat
You might also try:
C:\Documents and Settings\(your account name)\Application Data\Opera\Profile\cookies4.dat
If you can't find it just click on Start, Search, For Files or Folders, and type in cookies4.dat. Then right click on the file in the search window and chose, delete. Use the Advanced options to show hidden and system files if you have any problems, make sure to show hidden and system files checked and check subfolders.