[rag on a muffin]

i just installed windows XP on my virtual PC, and 3 days later, not event letting it connect to the internet, shutting it down right, everything you could imagine that might hurt the os i didnt do, and look what show up:

http://bardorodeo.com/dillon/winblows_XP_crash.jpg
Inline images MUST be no wider than 480 pixels. Please review and obey the posting rules, visible at the top of every forum. -- tooki

[Kermy]

Sounds like either OSX or VPC corrupted the hd file.

[rag on a muffin]

well i forgot to mension, this exact same thing happened to my friend on a dell inspiron 3100. the exact same error. i reinstalled it for him, because he is very computer illiterate.

[NYCFarmboy]

I have a elcheapo pc laptop which I use to double check my webpages (designer here)...

I purchased it brand new in February of this year.

For the first week I had it I actually liked using it. was fun to try something new and learn windows...

then....

7 days after I had it... I got my first virus on it... everytime I turned it on a porn site popped up...

I know a IT guy and he got that fixed,..

so it was fine, but then I noticed as the weeks went on the computer was just running slower and slower...and was no longer any fun to use..... it turns out all the spyware/pop up applications had got onto my pc and were slowing it down over time.

After 1 month, I quit using it for anything other than what I purchased it for (to double check the web pages I design on IE on Windows which displays differently than the Mac version...but thats another story).

so..I use the thing only when I'm making changes to my webpages..other than that it sits in my closet.

[SplijinX]

Blue screen of death...woot!

I highly recommend getting zone alarm or blackice defender to use as a firewall to lock down your internet connection. It's always a good way of alerting you there's something fishy on your system when a program you didn't know you had asks for permission to access the internet.

Not sure if you can cause of your work, but switch to Mozilla if at all possible. Seems like every page you visit on IE there are pop-ups for adds left and right. Not sure how much different things display between IE and Mozilla, but it might be worth a look.

[Michel_80]

Lol, it is like saying that OSX crashed on my PearPC (which I don't have obviously).
Like somebody stated earlier that unless you know how to service XP properly you have no chance ever running it well.
It took me 2 months to learn but now it's running perfectly with no virus/spyware/popups etc.

OS X requieres less effort thats for sure.

Oh yeah, don't ever use IE, Firefox is the best browser on earth.

[The Placid Casual]

A proper install of XP, on a decent system will be pretty much as stable as anything else.

It is not as good as OS X, but not as bad a it is perceived either.

[SplijinX]

WinXP is pretty taxing on the system with all of it's eye candy. I'd turn it off, if you haven't already, when running on VirtualPC or a slower box. Or just install Win2K, I think you will get a better experience with that.

[ManxStef]

Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
A proper install of XP, on a decent system will be pretty much as stable as anything else.

It is not as good as OS X, but not as bad a it is perceived either.

Agreed, but the basic setup does leave a fair bit to be desired - hopefully this'll be remedied with Service Pack 2, though they should've done it right to start with really...

As a general cure-all I'd advise the following measures (usually end up doing rhis to friends PCs that I have to fix):

Before you connect it to the internet make sure that the appropriate dialup connection has the XP firewall enabled. If you're behind a DSL router and plugged into it via ethernet you're probably OK - it'll most likely have a built-in firewall (and NAT). You may want a personal firewall anyway as it offers finer-grained control.

(ideally you'd get all of the below and burn to a CD, then install off-line and unplugged from any networks)

Get ZoneAlarm (free version) or similar firewall; XP's one is rubbish. Personally I like Kerio Personal Firewall but it's not the most intuitive software (very flexible, though).
--install--

Get antivirus. AVG free edition is what most use. NOD32 is awesome but costs. You can also use the Trend Housecall online scan (ActiveX plugin run through IE) as a temporary measure.
--install; update; scan--

(at this point it'll be OK to connect to the 'net if working unplugged)

--WindowsUpdate-- You'll need DSL to install the massive amount of patches & updates This should update the browser to IE6 SP1 (and Outlook Express) if it isn't already - then rescan to patch IE and OE!


Check Add/Remove Programs for any blantant spyware such as Comet Cursor, Gator, Bonzai Buddy, etc. Then get Spybot S&D and Adaware (both spyware removal tools) and remove the sneakier ones.
--update; scan--
Use Spybot's immunize facility to lock things down a bit.

If you must use IE, lock down all the Security settings (as much as you can bear - disabling ActiveX, Active scripting, etc. is a good start) and install the Google toolbar & popup blocker. Otherwise, if you value your sanity get Firefox or full Mozilla. I'd recommend Firefox for average users - customise the toolbar to make it look like IE, maybe even swap the icon for IE's so they don't notice You may also want to get the Googlebar extension if you want the functionality.**

Replace Outlook Express with either Eudora (free or ad-assisted), Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla's built-in mail client or buy a mail client such as The Bat. I like to go as far as disabling System Restore, then eradicating Outlook Express completely from the system, then re-enabling System Restore - Microsoft saw fix to make it incredibly difficult to remove, even if you remove it from "Set Program Access and Defaults" it doesn't actually physically remove it, it only "hides" it. Gggrrr.

----

At this point the system should behave a lot better It's amazing how much better an XP machine's "relative health" will stay if you avoid Internet Explorer and Outlook Express But I'm not going to start ranting about Microsoft's flagrant monopolistic abuses regarding these two otherwise it'll be hard to stop... nnnggg... ignored web standards... embraced and extended... crap CSS support.. arrgghhhh!! Be very thankful to Apple for giving us OS X


**For web design using Mozilla/Firefox check out the PNHToolbar, the Preferences Toolbar from XUL Planet, LiveHeaders, the Checky validation plugin, etc.

[Michel_80]

How is Outlook 2003 for security?

[The Placid Casual]

Originally posted by ManxStef:
Agreed, but the basic setup does leave a fair bit to be desired - hopefully this'll be remedied with Service Pack 2, though they should've done it right to start with really...

As a general cure-all I'd advise the following measures (usually end up doing rhis to friends PCs that I have to fix):

Before you connect it to the internet make sure that the appropriate dialup connection has the XP firewall enabled. If you're behind a DSL router and plugged into it via ethernet you're probably OK - it'll most likely have a built-in firewall (and NAT). You may want a personal firewall anyway as it offers finer-grained control.

(ideally you'd get all of the below and burn to a CD, then install off-line and unplugged from any networks)

Get ZoneAlarm (free version) or similar firewall; XP's one is rubbish. Personally I like Kerio Personal Firewall but it's not the most intuitive software (very flexible, though).
--install--

Get antivirus. AVG free edition is what most use. NOD32 is awesome but costs. You can also use the Trend Housecall online scan (ActiveX plugin run through IE) as a temporary measure.
--install; update; scan--

(at this point it'll be OK to connect to the 'net if working unplugged)

--WindowsUpdate-- You'll need DSL to install the massive amount of patches & updates This should update the browser to IE6 SP1 (and Outlook Express) if it isn't already - then rescan to patch IE and OE!


Check Add/Remove Programs for any blantant spyware such as Comet Cursor, Gator, Bonzai Buddy, etc. Then get Spybot S&D and Adaware (both spyware removal tools) and remove the sneakier ones.
--update; scan--
Use Spybot's immunize facility to lock things down a bit.

If you must use IE, lock down all the Security settings (as much as you can bear - disabling ActiveX, Active scripting, etc. is a good start) and install the Google toolbar & popup blocker. Otherwise, if you value your sanity get Firefox or full Mozilla. I'd recommend Firefox for average users - customise the toolbar to make it look like IE, maybe even swap the icon for IE's so they don't notice You may also want to get the Googlebar extension if you want the functionality.**

Replace Outlook Express with either Eudora (free or ad-assisted), Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla's built-in mail client or buy a mail client such as The Bat. I like to go as far as disabling System Restore, then eradicating Outlook Express completely from the system, then re-enabling System Restore - Microsoft saw fix to make it incredibly difficult to remove, even if you remove it from "Set Program Access and Defaults" it doesn't actually physically remove it, it only "hides" it. Gggrrr.

----

At this point the system should behave a lot better It's amazing how much better an XP machine's "relative health" will stay if you avoid Internet Explorer and Outlook Express But I'm not going to start ranting about Microsoft's flagrant monopolistic abuses regarding these two otherwise it'll be hard to stop... nnnggg... ignored web standards... embraced and extended... crap CSS support.. arrgghhhh!! Be very thankful to Apple for giving us OS X


**For web design using Mozilla/Firefox check out the PNHToolbar, the Preferences Toolbar from XUL Planet, LiveHeaders, the Checky validation plugin, etc.

Excellent advice!

[iomatic]

This is exactly the point. Let's say you make $50/hr. (some of us make more), right? So, that's $200 bucks in a work week, say four weeks per month -- that's $800 you just threw away.

No thanks. I like to make money. (But not at the expense of others, like some of those on the Right.)

Originally posted by Michel_80:
...
It took me 2 months to learn but now it's running perfectly with no virus/spyware/popups etc.
...

[madmacgames]

Originally posted by iomatic:
This is exactly the point. Let's say you make $50/hr. (some of us make more), right? So, that's $200 bucks in a work week

you only work 4 hours per week! ... well at $50/hour I guess you can

I know you probably meant $5/hour, but I hope you at least make a little more than that (if in the US, the federal minimum wage is higher than that).

[rag on a muffin]

well, i said i wouldnt let it connect, perhaps i should have been more specific; i have the internet completely disabled. my friend doesn't even have a way to connect.(no ethernet, modem, wifi, ect...) and he got the same problem, at different times i should mention.

[ManxStef]

Sorry, I should've explained the problem and solution a bit better!

The Windows Registry is basically a database that stores lots of things, like hardware configurations, service settings, application settings, filetype details and associations, COM object details, etc.

It has the following file components:
default
SAM
security
software
system
userdiff

(though logically it's outlaid differently - use the regedit.exe util inside Windows to check it out - though don't go messing and changing or deleting things!)

Anyway, sometimes the registry gets corrupted Yes, it is actually kinda rare but I've seen it on a few systems. Sometimes it's misbehaving kernel drivers, disk corruption, bad memory, bad software, or the wind coming from the north! Running in a virtual environment probably won't help things much; perhaps it'd be worth checking the Virtual PC site for patches/updates/issues with XP and seeing if anything shows up? It's rare enough that I'd lean in that direction first, anyway.

As for a fix, well that's kinda tricky considering you can't boot into the OS from the disk. In the real 2000/XP world (I'm not sure if you can do this in VirtualPC?) you boot from the OS CD, then choose Recovery.

From there you have two choices:

If you made an Emergency Backup floppy (using MS Backup) then you can choose the Repair option and step through that.

If not, you need to choose the Recovery Console. This'll boot into a command prompt (once you've supplied the admin password). From here, firstly check the disk using "chkdsk c: /f" (or whatever drive it's on). If this says it's found and repaired errors then try rebooting and see if it fixed it. If not, you have to go back into the Recovery Console and hope you've had a bit of luck. When you apply certain XP fixes the registry hive is automatically backed up to "\Systemroot\Repair" and there may be a more recent copy in the subdirectory RegBack (usually this is "cwinnt\Repair\RegBack"). You have to copy the known-good registry section over the damaged one. As so (from the console):

cd \winnt\Repair\RegBack
copy Software \winnt\system32\config\Software
(say yes to overwrite)

Reboot. It should now work again.

Of course it might just be easier to reinstall the OS and apps

[nick_coday]

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:


so it was fine, but then I noticed as the weeks went on the computer was just running slower and slower...and was no longer any fun to use..... it turns out all the spyware/pop up applications had got onto my pc and were slowing it down over time.

Well... DUHHHHH!!

If you keep surfing to those pRon sites and Warez without a good firewalll, you will keep getting those spyware programs!!

[nick_coday]

Originally posted by Michel_80:
How is Outlook 2003 for security?

Very good!

Pretty accurate for catching SPAM with tools to make it more accurate and does not auto-download inline images in HTML email which can notify the spammer that there is a person at that address without you ever replying or doing anything!

[RooneyX]

The only time I got viruses was when Al-Qaeda hacked my system and destroyed all my boot sectors for all my HDs.

So it depends how you use Windows

[hldan]

I agree that PC's suck but only because of the Windows Operating System. Of course that's what makes a PC a PC but like Sony's new 17" "A" series with the Dothan processor sporting a huge 2MB on die L2 cache @ 1.7Ghz and same price as the current 17" PB should even make Apple raise eyebrows.
Of course the Apple is better hands down but Macs need jaw dropping specs like this.

[iomatic]

No, I'm an idiot-- I meant:
$50/hr. x 40hrs. = $2000/wk.
$8000 you potentially threw away (before taxes).

Significantly worse.
Damn zeroes.

Originally posted by madmacgames:
you only work 4 hours per week! ... well at $50/hour I guess you can

I know you probably meant $5/hour, but I hope you at least make a little more than that (if in the US, the federal minimum wage is higher than that).

[Michel_80]

It's ok friend, I did not stop working while researching what tool to use to remove spyware. Not a total dimwit, thanks.