What is scandsys107f_8028?

Hello,

Yesterday I was surfing the Web and was knocked off by Windows Defender. I run Defender with Ad Aware free. A Defender window showed I was infected by five viruses, one of which was of the Win32 variety. I clicked the button to remedy the problem, which downloaded the file in the title. I scanned it with Ad Aware and got nothing, but Defender labeled the file as suspicious, which I thought was odd--so I did not run the file.

Instead, I downloaded and ran the Win prevalent malware removal tool and did a full scan. Result: 0 files infected. I downloaded and performed a smart scan with Win virus detection tool. Results again 0.

What's going on? Is the scandsys file legit or is it the virus? Are MS tools reliable? Is there an available 100% reliable online tool to check my pc for viruses? I was browsing on Firefox at the time. Defender has never behaved like this before.

Thanks.

Hi,

I use Windows Defender a lot, and have had no problems thus far :)

I test individual files/folders against Jotti and virustotal:

https://www.virustotal.com/

Basically they test a file/folder using most of the latest AV proggies and definitions. That means that you can expect no more than a 40% hit rate, if that. :mad:

I would not worry about what you are seeing myself, until I had run an online scan, and gotten positives. :D

Thanks, nihil:

Has Defender ever knocked you off the web as I describe and given you a list of infections by name and something like scandsys107f_ 8028 for a response, that Microsoft does not recognize? Is it possible I now have malware on my system that nullifies any online or downloaded search tool? What kind of event was that? Surely, something unusual, some kind of attack, yes?

Hi there listener,

No, I have never had that happen, nor had I even heard of it until you posted :confused:

What you experienced sounds very much like the tactics used by "scareware", which appears to have failed.

I find it very strange that Defender would suddenly discover 5 malwares, if it has up-to-date definitions. I would have expected it to block them before they got to you. Was it warning you that the site you were on contained this malware?

If you haven't already done so, might I suggest that you run a full scan in safe mode?

Also download and install Malwarebytes; update it, then reboot into safe mode and run a full scan.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

The on demand scanner is free, and that is the one you want. ;)

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Is it possible I now have malware on my system that nullifies any online or downloaded search tool? What kind of event was that? Surely, something unusual, some kind of attack, yes?

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It is possible, but rather unlikely, particularly if you run your scans in safe mode. Obviously some sort of attack was attempted, but it is hard to tell what...........my guess is still some sort of scareware as that file is not recognised. If you still have it; try submitting it to Virustotal.

If anything tries to interfere with the Malwarebytes installation that will warn you.

Otherwise you will need access to a "clean" computer and download:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...fender-offline

[ creds to Steve for that one:)]

It is the stand alone version of Defender that you run from a bootable disk or USB stick.

I believe that most of the major security suite vendors have something similar; PANDA certainly do:

http://free.pandasecurity.com/

I have tried "anti-rootkit", "safeCD", and "Active Scan"

Hope that helps.

Thanks again, ninil! Much good info here.

How would a scareware attack be launched? Would it be 'moored' to a specific site like an old naval mine? Or would it be fired at me like a bullet by someone online in real time?

This morning when I booted up I found several windows stacked on my desktop, telling me that Ad Aware had been shut down suddenly and had generated an error report. The choices were to send the report or cancel. I have learned from experience that sending the report on each window will allow Ad Aware to open and to turn on normally after a minute or so. Once it turns on and activates, I get no more of these shut down messages while I am online.

Are these windows the result of someone firing viruses at my computer like bullets, or what?

Thanks.

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How would a scareware attack be launched? Would it be 'moored' to a specific site like an old naval mine? Or would it be fired at me like a bullet by someone online in real time?

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Mostly they are "anchored", frequently without the knowledge of the true site owner.

They want you to buy some totally useless "anti-malware" solution, so they tend to live just within the law, in most legislations. They want money, which can obviously be traced, so they are not outright illegal :mad:

I have never seen the "bullet firing" approach, which means that I have never seen one; not that they don't exist :D

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This morning when I booted up I found several windows stacked on my desktop, telling me that Ad Aware had been shut down suddenly and had generated an error report.

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I would guess that AdAware is being blocked then?.............It will retry several times, which would explain the numbner of windows?

I am afraid that suggests that you do have something nasty onboard :(

Obviously, it is afraid of AdAware, so why not update that, and run it in safe mode?

Also, please get this one:

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/antimalware/

It is a 30 day trial................please run it in safe mode after an update. After a while it reverts to scanner only............ we just want it for a one-off scan ;)

Good luck mate!

And keep me informed............ this dawg has never unwillingly given up a bone! :lildevil:

Thanks again, nihil:

I checked out scareware and saw screenshots nearly identical to what I saw on my screen and am thus convinced that what happened to me was a scarewar attack, as you said. No harm done because I never opened their file. I deleted it. Ha ha.

Could not the Ad-Aware attacks come from an external source--some one firing virus bullets at my pc? I'm not certain I want to update Ad-A since the free version seems to be working as is. Also, would I want to add the Emsisoft product to Ad-A, or delete Ad-Aware first? I've heard that if you have too many anti-virus products on your system, viruses can find spaces between them to attack you. More is not always better?

Thanks for your continued support.

Anti virus and Malware programs like Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware can operate together as they look for different things. I have been using the free version and run it weekly or when I think it is needed. And yes, it will run in safe mode and I do have to update it manually. The paid version will update automatically. Fact is I have downloaded and installed it in Safe Mode with networking and updated it there on lots of clients computers.

Hi listener,

The general rule of thumb is that you do not have more than one security application doing the same thing interactively, at the same time. Personally, I have never seen or heard of two applications letting malware through, but I have solved many system instability issues by turning off multiple real time security applications.

On demand installations of Malwarebytes, A-Squared, Spybot S&D and SuperAntiSpyware are not a problem as you run them one at a time, preferably in safe mode. That way you avoid any potential conflicts.

I have managed to locate a machine with Windows Defender and Ad-Aware installed. I updated the Ad-Aware (free) application, including the engine etc. It booted and ran just fine afterwards. That makes me think that you might have some sort of installation corruption on your machine. I would recommend uninstalling the current AAW and downloading and doing a fresh install of the latest free version. I advise a clean install, as an update might preserve your problem?

BTW the OS was Windows 7 Home Premium.

I noticed that you are using FireFox, and would suggest you get the NoScript and AdBlockPlus plugins, if you haven't already got them. ;)

I don't think that your Ad-Aware problem is the result of a targeted attack or random malware probes. It still looks like a corruption issue to me. If the re-installation doesn't solve it then you might try cleaning the Registry.

CCleaner does it at a basic level, and also gets rid of junk files that build up on your system:

http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER

A more comprehensive solution is "Registry Cleaner" by Eusing:

http://www.eusing.com/Download.htm

Just click the "skip" button on the begging pop-up, then run the analysis option (top left) :D.............it makes a backup first, even though it doesn't tell you it does.

After those, try the clean installation of AAW again.

Please let us know how you get on.

I'd like to pop in on this real quick, because I want to point out something I think is fairly important:

First off, Nihil kind of brought this up already, but I want to elaborate a little on this:

Anti Virus Programs USED to be a pretty good idea to add to your Computer, running Windows, because once upon a time, they matter a LOT more.

The problem comes from the fact that the days of having to actually open an Email, download an attachment, and THEN you got infected, are LONG gone. Today, you aren't really going to see very many "JUST" Anti Virus Products on the Shelf of wherever you go to buy software.

When I first started getting into Computers you could walk into Best Buy, and see Norton Anti Virus, McAfee Anti Virus, and a few more on the Shelf, and buy them, take them home, and install them.

It was JUST Anti Virus though. Today, go into the same place, and, it's ALL Security Suites. Now don't get me wrong, we had those back then too, but they were generally bundled Anti Virus and Firewall Combos.

Today, the same thing is an Anti Virus program, a program to watch for Malware and Spyware, AND the Firewall. The price of this **** has gone up too. I remember buying a version of Norton for like 30 dollars or so.

The problem is, you don't have many Viruses running around now, because most problems and infections, are usually Tracking Cookies, and web sites loaded up with Spyware or Malware or something else.

Also of concern is the fact that Anti Virus software doesn't exactly help THAT much. I mean, Nihil was saying 40%, and though I don't know off hand what the hit rate is of any given product, I'd say he's probably being generous as well. You'd be lucky if an off the shelf Anti Virus program managed to find even 25% of the **** in the Wild.

Anyway, I just wanted to weigh in on that. I wouldn't bother wasting my money on this stuff.

I have multiple Computers on my Network, but only ONE of them even has a single Windows Partition. And that is THIS Computer. It came with Windows 7, and I left it on there, even though I shrank the HD size in half, and, even right now, I haven't booted into Windows in a while.

I use mainly Linux and BSD.

If you go online without a antivirus installed, it takes abot 15 seconds to become infected!

The security suites are still not mature and have been known to cause problems for folks.

MSE , Malwarebytes and sitting behind a router are what I use on my computers and laptop. Yes, I have gone about a year and half with out , chickened out and installed a antivirus and the next day a site admin and I figured out the nasty I caught came from the ad server. And as noted, Linux, because of the small percentage of users, is not targeted light Windows and now Apple.

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If you go online without a antivirus installed, it takes abot 15 seconds to become infected!

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I am afraid that that is absolute nonsense! The 15 seconds is unsubstantiated in this day and age.............back in the days of Sasser, Code Red and the like, it might have been true, but not now.

Now, we are talking internet worms here are we not? :D so AV is total crap.......... what you need is an effective firewall.

:cool:

An effective firewall, I agree, but I found very few people even know what a firewall is.

The money is good, but I got burned out teaching clients not to get infected with in the first minute while trying to get the updates.

Maybe you were lucky, I was not.

OK, I think that you see where I am coming from?

Back in the day (2001) When Windows XP was released, it had a built-in firewall, that wasn't turned on by default.

Around 2003/4 we had Code Red, Sasser and the rest; so the firewall was turned on by default in SP1 or 2?

These days the "security suites" and Windows have their own inbuilt firewalls, turned on by default, but it is those that protect you from the worms, rather than the AV element.

Basically we are in a catch 22 situation............ if the (L)users knew enough, we wouldn't have anything to charge them for :D

I do recall when the exposure time was measured in seconds, but I last read that this is now more like 30 minutes or so?

As for being lucky, I don't think so, as I have mostly worked in corporate IT. Only since I semi-retired to the coast have I worked for private customers. Hey! this place is so sticksville I don't have a problem; I am "the computer guy" :D so they don't mess with anything.

98, WinMe, 2k and XP before the change, yep, when it got down to the time factor I brought out, The next SP turned it on.
So, they reinstall let us say XP and do not install the SPs before going on line. <shudder> and I gave them the SPs on cd.:fpissed::cry:

Thanks nihil and others.

In a day or two I hope to try a few things in safe mode. Meanwhile, I'd like to stay with the idea of a targeted attack. Let's say I have an online enemy. How would this person attack my puter? How would I experience these attacks? There is no pattern to these Ad Aware shutdown windows: some days quite a few, others none at all. If it were a virus on my machine, wouldn't it manifest itself with regularity?

I'm wary of adding too much stuff to my 2005 HP pc. Once I loaded McAfee for which I should have had the capacity, and my system crashed--so no more McAfee. Most of my crashes are system 32 failures caused by a hanging download, i.e., the system failed to shut down properly and required a manual shut off, which caused a big crash. After the last crash I got a clean re-install of Windows. With automatic updates, I no longer see security downloads at shutdown, so no hanging downloads--big relief for me.

I still run Office 2000, which I much prefer to the bloated later editions.

Years ago, my pc at the time became so clogged with viruses in a short time that one morning I could not turn it on. I asked the techie who cleaned up the machine if that could have been a deliberate attack and he said, quite possibly. So I'm not paranoid that my machine might be currently under attack, albeit a weak one.

I run CCleaner before I pack it in for the night.

Thanks,

Do you have a router between you pc and the modem?

Or are you using dailup, dsl or cable if you do not?.

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Let's say I have an online enemy. How would this person attack my puter?

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They would need to know your IP address or be physically close enough to your wireless router.

We don't know enough about your system to say much more than that. In my case if I turn off the router I get a new IP address when I turn it back on. Your IP may tell you that you have a "volatile" address, but that only happens when you switch off or have a crash, Typically you have to pay extra for a permanent IP addy. [my experience is limited to the UK here]

If your Ad-Aware problems are random then that suggests some sort of corruption/conflict............I would just re-install it as a first move. :)

Mr. Maxwell,

My earlier posts on this site (circa 2002) were concerned with the activities of an obsessed individual who, over time and with the aid of corrupt police officers and persons at AT&T, gained ungodly powers with the telephone, probably attacked my computer and most certainly read my hotmail. That individual is alive today.

Count yourself lucky if you have never met such a person, and don't think your online/offline experience is the measure of all things.

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Originally Posted by Shay

If you go online without a antivirus installed, it takes abot 15 seconds to become infected!

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You sound like a News Paper Headline. lol.

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And as noted, Linux, because of the small percentage of users, is not targeted light Windows and now Apple.

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That's a load. I've been hearing this same thing for years now. More than half the Web Servers on the Internet are Apache. Apache, has source code, and, most Web Servers today, are an Open Source version of Unix. Windows is only the big boy on Desktops. In the Server World though, Unix is still the top dog. So saying that no one writes **** for those OSs because they have no user base, is not only incorrect, it's almost laughable when you consider that if you REALLY want to target the best potential out there, Servers are WAY more lucrative than Desktops, and yet it still doesn't happen.

I'd LOVE to hear any of you pop up with something saying anything other than "Windows just wasn't designed right and EVERY version in use today is STILL based on a POS called NT written mainly by a jack off from VMS which sucks too" :)

Apache IS the most used Web Server on the net. FreeBSD and Linux ARE the main OSs in terms of Servers. Both have source code available, and both are used WAY more than not. So, saying Windows has more users, is only true for PCs.

Code Red took out a lot of Servers. Windows Servers, but still Servers. The fact is, most Web Servers are NOT running Windows, and so why are no "virii boys" going after those? I don't know about you but If I wrote Viruses or anything like that, I'd want mine to kick the **** out of Servers. Desktops are easy, Servers can take down entire companies.

Mind you it's 2:42 AM, and I'm a little out of it, so my post MIGHT be a little hard to understand. I'm late for work, and I was on a bender in Detroit all night. But Apache and BSD and Linux, are the main things running the Internet. That's why I can't stand people saying "The ONLY reason no one targets Linux and BSD and any other Unix is no one uses it enough" when it's hard to deny that most Servers ARE using it. The real truth is that Windows just blows at Security.

Hmmm,we seem to have lost the plot here?

Unless I am mistaken, this thread is about the security of home PCs and has absolutely nothing to do with servers, Apache or anything like that.

In the context of home PCs, Windows is the operating system, and the one that is targeted by those criminals who go after home PCs. They ignore any other OS on the grounds of its insignificance and obscurity.

Cybercriminals are nothing if not percentage players ;)

As for XP, I have always given my customers a streamlined CD and taped up the old one marked "do not use: obsolete". :D

I guess Shay is quite correct in the context of home or SOHO customers, although his experiences have obviously been different from mine, living in a very small town (I could walk anywhere in 30 minutes or less).

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If you go online without a antivirus installed, it takes abot 15 seconds to become infected!

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What crap is this?

I am 150 &#37; positive you read the article with an XP sp1 machine was infected in no time surfing around.

EDIT: I have to argue with you guys here. If you dont know what you are doing then atleast run some sort of AV, dont say its useless. Its useless for you and I that are accustomed to the interwebz and IT best prac in general but for the masses , AV should be installed.

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Originally Posted by nihil;963265

I guess [COLOR=DarkOrchid

Shay[/COLOR] is quite correct in the context of home or SOHO customers, although his experiences have obviously been different from mine, living in a very small town (I could walk anywhere in 30 minutes or less).

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I moved from a area with about a 3.5 million population a few years ago. When i retired.

If you want to experiment , install XP, no Service packs, and hit the internet. Be sure to hook up directly to the modem.

Its really not a matter of running AV or not. Honestly, it all depends on what sites you frequent. I have a client that only frequents like 4 sites. Older gentlemen, not too computer savvy. Complained about some strange issues he was having with windows which sounded like virus activity. Guy bought the computer from best buy like 4 years ago and had an outdated norton trial that came with the computer ( yea that 60 day trial they give you when you first buy a new computer). He was running Vista, semi updated. He had a total of 2 virii. Nothing major at that. On the other hand I've had clients running windows 7 and antivirus software and still manage to get virii. Needless to say they like the seedy parts of the net. Antivirus software only works as good as the user allows it to.

A good router and some common sense is really all the security you need. Antivirus software is for peace of mind. If you need to do something personal and private, get your hands on a linux live cd. Ubuntu is super easy to learn.

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Originally Posted by nihil

Hmmm,we seem to have lost the plot here?

Unless I am mistaken, this thread is about the security of home PCs and has absolutely nothing to do with servers, Apache or anything like that.

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Oh come on Nihil, you know I can't let that just be ;) I read someone saying that a Computer, NOT what TYPE, would be infected in seconds. See, it's not as simple as "Well there aren't that many people on home Computers who use anything other than Windows".

I think you know that. In fact, I'll go as far as saying that if I make a statement you agree with, I MIGHT just change the whole thing;

Are we talking about the average idiot user who can't install Software themselves? Or do you mean ANY user who can install their own software, and maybe even updates the thing, but isn't "Advanced" or something?

You have to remember that making a statement like that, is pretty bold considering just how far things go in this world. Even if we ONLY talk about users sitting home with a Windows PC, there are still a couple hundred different TYPES of users.

Now, if you meant ONLY the guy who thinks he needs a computer, and knows nothing about them, and he doesn't do anything with it other than download his pron movies like "hotgirl.mpg.exe" yea, he's going to get infected like a hooker on 7 mile. And for those of you who've never been to Detroit, 7 Mile is a place you don't want to get lost. You won't hear any Banjos or anal rape stories like West Virginia, but you might hear gun shots, and never see cops because they aren't stupid enough to go down there.

I have a friend of mine, and we go down to Detroit a lot. Things are cheaper there. It's funny because on the way there, you'll see cops everywhere. But once you hit 8 Mile or so, Cops get more and more rare. 10 minutes after 8 Mile, you won't see a Cop period. In fact a friend of mine was sitting in a Coffee Place one day drinking Coffee and while he was inside, there was a whole table of Police Officers.

The reason I'm going off topic to tell this, is because I made a joke that might not make sense, but it's really funny, and this story too, is really REALLY funny, so bare with me a sec; Anyway, the table of Cops, there was around 8 or 12 Cops sitting there, having Coffee, and juts in general, relaxing. I saw at least 8 though. Gun shots went off at one point, and everyone looked around to see where they were coming from. After that, we all looked at the cops like "OK, gonna go check that out?" And they didn't move.

My friend said "Hey, umm....Aren't you guys gonna go check that out?" And they said "No, we're not getting shot, would YOU?"....

So that may give you an idea of not only how Detroit has quite a reputation for murder and violence, and, why we have that reputation. I live about a half hour away or so from there, and where I live, we DO have Violence and stuff, but not like that. Once you get to about 9 Mile or so, it's actually a little safer. Mind you no gas station has a public restroom at that area, but they do once you hit Saint Clair County. Which is where I live. (If you saw the movie 8 Mile with Eminem, he says at one point when he gets back with His Mom, that he can't say he's from Motown, because he's back in the 810 now, which, 810 is MY area code) ;)

Anyway, my point there, is that I don't think you should lump every home PC user into one category, because there ARE the run of the mill idiots who get infected, but, there ARE people who have home Computers running Windows who also are gamers, who generally know a little more than those idiots, and then, you have the "Professionals" who work with Computers all day long. They may know how to install their own software for their jobs, and maybe figure out a few things here and there, but they still don't know a damn thing about installing an OS.

Then, you have the "Power User" who customizes things, DOES know they need to watch their backs online, and installs AV, a Firewall, and runs a Scan for Malware. They might not be able to figure everything out, but they can generally keep themselves MORE safe than the idiot who opens executable movies and pictures.

So you see, you aren't going to just lump every person running Windows at home in one shot. That's my point, and that's a fact as well.

In the context of home PCs, Windows is the operating system, and the one that is targeted by those criminals who go after home PCs. They ignore any other OS on the grounds of its insignificance and obscurity.

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Cybercriminals are nothing if not percentage players ;)

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Sort of. I've met and talked with some of the biggest online *****s imaginable. They DO generally want more bang for their buck, but that is sort of like saying "Every person alive uses Coupons".

Before saying anything about that statement, think about it; A Coupon is like trying to make the most out of what you have. If you have 10 dollars, and you're in need of something, and a Coupon lets you hit two for the price of one, you'll take it. Now, if you have 20 dollars, or 10,000 dollars, are you REALLY worried about coupons?

I've never seen a Coupon for Louis Cognac, and at 5,000 dollars a bottle, you'd kind of want one. I'm trying to make this distinction between expensive and bang for your buck, because hat percentage game, can apply to economics the same way it does to cyber crime, and I think I may have it now and you may know what I mean by that, but my point in this, is that you can't just make a statement that everyone is the same.

I too have Windows, and I have AVG free on it. I've not found anything with it mind you, but I installed it as a precaution.

I also have Spybot on there. And I update.

It's times like this I miss catch being a member here. He'd totally back me up. Remember him? Windows User, totally elitist about it? Somehow we actually got along.

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As for XP, I have always given my customers a streamlined CD and taped up the old one marked "do not use: obsolete". :D

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There's companies here still using it.

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I guess Shay is quite correct in the context of home or SOHO customers, although his experiences have obviously been different from mine, living in a very small town (I could walk anywhere in 30 minutes or less).

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Here a lot of business places are using Linux now. Even I was surprised to be at home Depo, Lowes, and Target, and see KDE running on their POS terminals AND the PCs they use to show customers how flooring might look, and other machines.

The book store we have here too is now using Unix instead of XP. Which is nice; I guess they finally read one of the books I asked them to order for me.

This post is longer than I wanted to go with it but I doubt my point would have gotten across if I'd have simple said what I wanted to say. And the page and a half hooker joke I wasn't letting go of that's comedic gold.

I WILL point out that I'm the only person still on AntiOnline who's ever put his money where his mouth is, and posted his IP address with a "bring it" comment. Actually, come to think of it, I think only Nihil has been here long enough that he might remember at one point, I hosted a little mini competition, and posted my IP, made an account, and let everyone take a shot at me. No one got in, or even managed to do anything, though one jack ass DID DDoS me, but that was about it.

I intentionally turned off my Firewall that day and watched. Good times. Too bad these new members say things like "Apache and PHP are an auto back door" even though neither are installed by default on ANY OS on earth and wouldn't ever have the balls to try that out ;)

Opensuse also allows you to setup a Vanilla webserver type configuration during initial setup/Installation.


Also i had a good chuckle about the whole No AntiVirrii 15 seconds till infection Post.

I thought that was the 5 Second rule? :eek:

Is it fine though when i drop a cookie onto the floor,then when i pick it up i use the cat's furr to wipe it clean?

all within 15seconds?

Or should i use Protection so i don't get virrii in my systems?

Hmmmm,

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I'd LOVE to hear any of you pop up with something saying anything other than "Windows just wasn't designed right and EVERY version in use today is STILL based on a POS called NT written mainly by a jack off from VMS which sucks too" :)

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OK mate, then I will, what you are saying is the totally biased garbage you keep trolling us with every few months :rolleyes:

1. Windows isn't an operating system, it is a registered trademark/marketing tool.
2. NT isn't an operating system, it is a registered trademark/marketing tool.
3. The guy from the VMS team had nothing to do with the technical development, and he didn't "mainly write it". Hell, have you seen how much code there is? if it were one guy he would still be writing! :rolleyes:

Microsoft doesn't invent, it buys and/or steals. It is based on marketing, not technology.

The guy from VMS was brought in as a figurehead token for marketing reasons. VMS was the premier manufacturing and process control OS of its day, and Microsoft were using that as a marketing lever because they were trying to get deeper into the corporate marketplace and (hopefully, servers).

Nobody real used Unix back then..........and I know because I was there.

Unix came later, when Microsoft were trying to break into the market; this guy was supposed to appeal to the decision makers of the day who would be more familiar with VMS. The VMS guy would have had little or no technical input as he came from an era of mainframes/midi-computers and dumb terminals..............there were no "servers" as such, back then, or desktop PCs.

You are very precise when it comes to the history of Unix, perhaps you should be equally so with other operating systems? ............... although in the case of Microsoft, your first problem would be actually identifying one.

Basically, Microsoft have had one OS and that is MS DOS, which they bought-in. Anything else has been "and this is what our marketing guys think we can make money out of next", or "life after DOS, episode 1, 2, 3, ....."

Two big clues for you to consider:

1. Where is the consistency in the MS product timeline and content?

2. Where is the technical and academic literature that true operating systems generate over time? [I don't include "dummies guides to" in that category:D]

Now do you see what I mean? ..........it looks much more like a trial and error and what can we sell? approach, than true design and development.

That's Microsoft ;), which is why it was so successful in an era of antediluvian corporations pursuing 1960's business models.

Did you REALLY just say I troll? Come on man you've known me a DECADE. You know by now that if I wanted to do that I'd push WAY more buttons than that man. I'm going to assume you are either having a bad day and just didn't want that button pushed right now, or, have forgotten I AM a button pusher who is merely screwing around, having a little fun here, and, of course, generating a discussion since I'm personally just tired of the usual tech support questions we normally get. (For real though if that DID bother you that much, send me a PM and let me know what was up, and I'll be more than willing to take some time after work tonight and see if we can't just work that out too.)

Errr, yes I did..............:D

According to Wikipedia, button pushing is trolling (in the original sense that is).

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In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory,[2] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[3] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion

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I rest my case :p

I really don't understand your obsessive distaste for VMS as I have worked in numerous environments where it was used very successfully. Please remember that it is an operating system that was designed and written to run DEC/VAX hardware. In that respect it is more like IBMs OS/34, OS/38 and OS/400, and is certainly not an "academic" universal, development like Unix or Linux.

Microsoft is a strange case, as it is hard to really define a consistent design strategy over time. It all seems to be very marketing driven.

They started off by buying DOS and developing progressive versions, and of their "Windows" GUI for it. With Windows 95 they tried to integrate the DOS OS with the Windows GUI. They were also developing NT4.0 at the same time, and obviously didn't have enough resources for the two projects.

[Ever wondered why there are 4 .bas files in the NT4.0 Systems Folder? ;)]

I guess everything finally worked out with Win98SE and Windows 2000 Pro.

Then they launched their next OS which was XP and intended to integrate all their desktop products. This pretty much worked from the start.....with 3 SPs in 11 years as opposed to 6 in under 5 for NT4.0

Vista is obviously another new development, was delivered late, and again they didn't quite get it right. :rolleyes:

Windows7 I would say is the corrected version of that, and Windows8 is just an enhanced version of Windows7.

You can't really identify a continuous "based on" because these are commercial products that are intended to have an EOL, and be replaced with something different.

If you are looking for continuity, I would say that so far (with the notable exception of XP), whenever they have tried something really innovative, it hasn't worked first time out.

It is far easier to see strategy and continuity in Apple's products, but they have to have a much more cautious and disciplined approach because of the interdependency of their OS and hardware businesses. They certainly couldn't afford a Vista or ME :eek:

Well that's just my take on it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nihil

Hi,

I use Windows Defender a lot, and have had no problems thus far :)

I test individual files/folders against Jotti and virustotal:

https://www.virustotal.com/

Basically they test a file/folder using most of the latest AV proggies and definitions. That means that you can expect no more than a 40% hit rate, if that. :mad:

I would not worry about what you are seeing myself, until I had run an online scan, and gotten positives. :D

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Thats dont help for me... ;/ Dammet.

Well, it ought to be helpful, as virustotal runs quite a few malware detectors, so if you get positives you should be very wary of the file.

At the same time submit the file name to Google or other search engine and see what other people have to say about it........no hits looks like random naming, which would be unusual for legitimate software.

There are a number of sites that specialise in giving information on what product files belong to and whether they are considered safe.

As well as that, note the size of file and its location, if installed. The sites I mention will usually tell you the sizes and locations of legitimate copies.......if it's anywhere else or a different size then it is probably malware.

;)

Nihil; Do you remember back when there was an Email going around that you'd get from a real family member or friend telling you that a "New Virus" was going around, and that the way you could tell if you had it, was to go to a certain area, and if you saw a file named a certain name with a Teddy Bear Icon, you were infected.... LOL.

I still remember that, and how many people would delete that, thinking it was a Virus, when, really, I considered it a really clever scam. When you can make people do the same thing you would maybe want a virus to do, that's kind of neat.

Yeah, I do remember :D there were a whole raft of pranks and hoaxes designed to make fools of the recipients IIRC?

In the context of the OP's post, the modern equivalent is the Scareware that he seems to have encountered, only the objective now is to rip off the recipient :(

Talking of pranks (and this was NOT deliberate), a mate of mine desperately wanted to borrow an HDD a few days ago. He didn't want PATA, so the best I could do was the 320GB SATA II drive I had just tested my Core i7 2600K rig on.

Couple of days later he calls me and says he's been working on it two days and it won't load Windows7.......all he gets is a blinking cursor. He had also tried the 32bit Windows8 Release Preview DVD that I had given him, and that did the same.

He'd run an HDD test and checked the boot sequence in his BIOS, but still no joy. OK at least that meant his box was booting BIOS, and the problem had to be detecting an OS. As the disk check worked it could obviously get into DOS, so why not a bootable Windows medium?

I went round to have a look and a :drink:and found that it would install the loader for Windows Vista 32bit, but not much else after that. It gave a message about "GTP" which finally caught me on.

The Intel box had defaulted to the more modern GTP partitioning, whilst his older AMD rig and BIOS were looking for an MBR setup.

Strange that Windows7 & 8 didn't just load from the DVD and report the problem, when the older crappier Vista did?

The quick solution was to wipe the drive with DBAN then it worked just fine. I know you can get utilities to do conversions, but he had a dead box with an unusable drive.

It gave me a good laugh though........couldn't have done better if I'd tried :D

LOL! The Good ol' Days huh Nihil? Part of me actually misses some of those things from then you know? I dunno, it was fun sometimes lol, getting an Email from someone you've never heard of telling you to Delete **** in your System Folders as though this was somehow a good idea, and morons lining up to listen to THIS stranger, and yet, you couldn't get them to listen to you, even once lol.

http://www.prevx.com/filenames/X2486...0+(1).EXE.html
Check out this!