Learning to Love Linux

My entire family has been converted to Linux.  While I drove the adoption as the tech support in residence, the conversion wasn't always met with open arms by all.  In the end the the fear of the unknown was overcome and everyone did learn to (mostly) love Linux.

This post is a summary of the applications that have helped in that adoption.  There are many Windows to Linux application equivalence charts.  This won't be another one.  Nor is this a detailed analysis of the merits of various alternative applications.  Instead, like most posts on this site, is more statement of what worked for us, with minimal explanation.

User Interface

This is the area where adoption begins - initial navigation.  Being able to find, start and stop programs is crucial.  Like it or not, the 800 pound gorilla is Windows and it's navigation paradigm.  Following it has benefits both in home adoption and in transferring skills to systems outside the home, such as at school.  Based primarily on that plus overall out-of-the box functionality, Linux Mint is our main choice, however we have at least one of each below.

• Linux Mint - best Windows equivalent:  start menu, taskbar, min/max/close buttons
• Ubuntu - the foundation for the other two distributions:  inverted UI for Windows users, a lot of "the same only different"
• UNE (was UNR) - Screen optimized for netbooks:  nothing the same here, launcher very unique

Identical - Linux

These applications comprise most of the home computer usage in our family.  Either originally on Windows or once converted to Linux, these are identical.  It should probably be noted that no one is a PC gamer.  Those that enjoy those use dedicated consoles.

• Firefox - customizable web browsing
• Office - word processing, spreadsheet and presentations
• Picasa - photo management
• Google Desktop - desktop, email and web searching
• KeePassX - password manager 

 Office above refers to Open Office, which is cross platform.  Since most home users don't use 3% of the installed function of Office applications, switch the default file type to the Microsoft format (for sharing) and you'll never know the difference.

Alternatives - Linux

These are the native Linux applications that round out the functions wanted by the family.  Note that these links are given for information only.  Applications are installed via the package manager within a Linux system, not via web downloads.

• Banshee - music manager and mp3 sync.  Syncs perfectly to multiple mp3 players and Android.
• Songbird - music manager and iPod sync.  We have only one iPod owner and this works well for him.
• Totem movie player - DVD playback.  VLC has more options and may be use less CPU though.
• apcupsd - software control for APC UPS.  Battery operation options for UPS.
• gnuCash - accounting software.  Amazing software, gave it 14 months of usage, but switched back to Quicken.
• simplescan - multi sheet scanning to PDF.  The 300Mb+ of HP Solution Center is gone.
• Tomboy - cross platform - sticky notes, useful with DropBox. 

Productivity - Linux

Many people create written content either to send (email), print (documents) or remember (sticky notes).  Those that make a discipline out of creating content, in the hope they'll be more productive, might be interested in these.

• Nevernote - an open source, cross platform (near) clone of Evernote, focused on creating the "missing" Linux client
• Rednotebook - an open source, cross platform (including Windows portable version) journal and calendar application

Alternatives - Cloud

A switch in operating systems might also be a good time to look at cloud, or web based services.  Consider your access, storage and security needs.  You may find this is a good time to move to a computer anywhere model.

• Springpad - cross platform, web and mobile. Social and email linkage.  If I ever switched from Evernote, this would be it.  Maybe when I upgrade to Android 2.1, hmmm.
• Mint - Owned by Intuit, "Quicken Lite" - limited to pulling 3 months history when starting, relatively inflexible categories, very coarse grained tax designations.  But, like GnuCash, great for a free application.
• Google Docs - All office type applications and data are web based.  The performance lag, plus existing critical mass keep me from this, but there is a lot of positives if starting fresh.
• Dropbox - cross platform, web and mobile.  Synchronized file access for all your computers via the web.  Allows access from any web browser.

Identical - Wine

This section gives me a deja vu from my time as a OS/2 Version 3 (aka Warp) support engineer.  The Win 3.x compatibility and IBM's inability to market small systems led to OS/2s downfall, but I digress.  In any event, while trying alternatives I did test the following two 32bit Windows applications, which worked perfectly for everything I tested under Wine 1.2 (Windows emulator):

• Quicken 2009 - personal finance management
• Evernote 3.1 - tagged note taking, cross platform (except Linux), web and mobile

Don't Need

A short list of some of the things you'll no longer need to have bogging down your system, keeping updated or having to spend.

• Anti-Virus
• Anti-Spyware
• Disk Defrag
• Adobe Reader
• PDF Writer
• Proprietary Scanner
• Validation
• Upgrade $$$

Problems

Linux is not Utopian computing.  At the end of the day there are still some computer "they're all like that" issues - see the "mostly" comment at the start.  This is our short list of items that I haven't solved due to time, expertise or interest.  One of our Linux Mint systems loses X-Windows only occasionally when two users are logged in.  The UNE system uses a launcher that removed Places which makes local file sharing more inconvenient than it should be.  Our lowest end system (1.8Ghz/512Mb) runs movies better on WinXP, although everything else runs better under Linux Mint.  If none of these situations apply (or make sense to you), have no worries.

Still not sure?  Try one of the Live CD distributions.  While the actual boot is about 20 times slower than off a hard drive, you'll have full functionality once its up and running.  It will even allow installations (for that session) of additional software.

Hopefully this can be a small additional resource to those considering the move to Linux or just starting out.  Net:  the benefits far outweigh the small learning curve to be climbed.  You just might end up loving it.

Enjoy.

Computer Donation

How do you safely donate a computer to a person or organization when you've moved on in your technology needs?  How can you do so without putting your own digital information or identity at risk?  The difficulty in answering these questions keep many old computers sitting unused in closets.

While better than going to a landfill, there are uses that are better yet.  Job retraining facilities can use older machines for teaching purposes, running local applications for courses such as typing and basic computer skills.  Non profits can also use downlevel machines as dedicated kiosks they might otherwise not afford.  Whatever the use might be, something is better than nothing.  Let's get started with some how-to considerations.

The key is to remove personal information from the machine and any licensed software that you are not including in the donation (including original media, documentation and license).  Personal information not only includes information in email and files, also browser cache, cookies, history.

The easiest way to insure nothing is disclosed is to wipe the entire drive.  There are several utilities that will do this, including the popular Darik's Boot and Nuke.  Download the .iso, burn it to a CD (not as a file, as an image).  Insert the CD into the old machine and (you guessed it) - boot and nuke.

The downside to this is that the machine is now unusable without a reload of an operating system.  To reinstall on an older machine, find all necessary drivers, configure preferences, etc. can take some time.  The staff at your chosen ministry or nonprofit might not have the necessary skills or tools either.  It might be faster to do some selective deletion.  The suggestions below will provide some steps to get you started.

• Open the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs then create a new user with administrative rights.
• Write the userid and password on a piece of tape and put it on the side of the machine.
• Logoff then logon with the new id
• Delete all other ids
• Open C:\Documents and Settings, delete all folders except All Users, Default User and the one you just created
• Open the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs then delete as necessary
• Browse the Start menu for applications that may need to be deleted
• Open C:\Program Files, then look for any remaining applications for deletion
• Look for files off the root of C:\ such as \Temp, \Tmp etc that could be candidates for deletion
• Install CCleaner being sure to add the menu to the Recycle Bin
• Empty the Recycle Bin using secure delete
• Use CCleaner to wipe free space

I wrote this from memory as a precursor to helping a friend out this weekend.  I've been away from Windows support for a long time and wrote this as much to collect my thoughts as anything.  Suggestions on better or more current techniques are welcome.

In the meantime, it should help me and maybe some others.  Enjoy.

Some People

While updating a Windows computer on a family member's machine recently I received the unexpected pop up (captured below) when attempting to install Microsoft Security Essentials:

It seems that the copy of McAfee SiteAdvisor I'd just installed on the system was warning me that Microsoft's site had unsafe downloads - as identified by "some people".  The McAfee sales force perhaps?

Too classic not to share.  More geek humor.  Enjoy.

Windows XP Security - Linux Alternatives

This is the fourth and (intended) final article in a series on Windows XP security. The first three focused on cleaning malware, preventing malware with software and preventing malware with defensive computing habits. This article will identify how to prevent operating system level malware by switching operating systems.

There are a lot of reasons why Windows in all its versions, has the predominant market share in desktop computing. Discussion of those reasons would branch into the depths of marketing practices and technical merits. Without going there, I'd submit that at the end of the day it is due to preloading. Virtually every retail PC sold has Windows preloaded. Not many consumers will take time to research alternatives, learn new skills, potentially spend additional dollars - when they have something that works. As long as it works for you, I agree. For those that find it not working, at whatever threshold that is for you, continue reading.

For the vast majority of home users, at least those that I deal with that don't make their living in some form of technical field, it doesn't matter what they're running. Any device that allows web surfing, web mail, plays video and handles file attachments (documents and spreadsheets) will do just fine. With that market segment in mind, major PC manufacturers have started offering alternatives such as Dell does with Ubuntu (a distribution of Linux), often at reduced fees - because most all distributions of Linux are free.

The good news is that PC owners don't have to buy a new system to try a new operating system. It can be downloaded for free, tried without any risk or changes to the current operating system, then installed in a variety of co-existent or replacement modes. All at your own pace and comfort level.

Many choices exist for free and open source operating systems. Most will be some base form of Linux assembled into a bundle of applications called a distribution. The selection of which distribution is "best" or "right" is subjective, however all will offer security advantages over *a default* Windows XP installation. This is primarily because Linux distributions, like all Unix variants, are designed to work with the principle of "least privilege". Users do not run as system adminstrators. If elevated level of access is required, the user is prompted for their password, the task is completed then the default level of privilege is restored. All applications will run within this security model without additional steps. As described in earlier articles, it can be implemented in Windows XP, but not all applications will run seamlessly with this change. There have been modifications to the architecture of later versions of Windows, but this series focuses on XP.

For the majority of Windows users looking for alternatives, I believe Linux Mint will make for an extremely smooth transition. Linux purists will howl at this statement, but it is the most "Windows like" right out of the box. What it means to the "average" PC user is that it provides full multimedia support without any extra effort, meaning that you can listen to MP3's watch DVD's and view web pages that require Flash technology right after install. Wireless internet connectivity and printing will work seamlessly as well.

As many Linux distributions do, Linux Mint combines both the installation CD with a Live CD that will run the full operating system straight from the CD, without modifying the hard drive. Download the "Live CD, 32 bit, The standard version" from http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php The filetype of .iso you've downloaded is a CD image, meaning it must be opened by a CD burning program that can use it to make a CD. This is different than simply burning a file to CD. If you need a CD burning program for Windows, a good free one is CDBurnerXP from http://cdburnerxp.se/ The same site describes how to burn an ISO image to CD at http://cdburnerxp.se/help/Data/burn-iso

Boot from the CD for a couple of sessions and see how things work.  Recognize that the boot from the CD will be much slower than from an operating system installed to the hard drive because of the orders of magnitude speed difference in the two different disk technologies.  When you're ready to install to the hard drive, for the speed improvement and ability to save your customizations - backup your data!  Then you have several options:  installing under windows as any other application; installing in dual boot mode; completely replacing Windows XP as the sole operating system on the hard drive.  There are advantages to each.  Booted from the CD, selecting the Install icon on the Desktop and installing in dual boot mode may be the most comfortable choice for those starting out.

Additional information is available in the excellent Introduction to Linux Mint document, the Ubuntu (on which Mint is based) community documentation and many sites with guides to getting started using Linux for persons whose only experience is Windows.  If you want a system that runs clean and fast - and stays that way - it may be worth your time do do a little reading.  Don't be afraid to experiment either, with computers it can be the best way to learn.

In this series, I've attempted to cover the short course on tools and techniques I use when pressed into service to assist someone with a malware problem on Windows XP.   The articles have covered cleanup, two types of prevention and my recommended alternative to almost everyone (especially anyone I've helped more than once).  There are other similar articles around, written for there own purposes.  This series provides the answer for when I'm asked "what would you do?".

Now you know.  Enjoy.

Edited 2010.10.04 - Added Ubuntu community documentation reference.

Windows XP Security - Safe PC Usage

This is the third in a series on Windows XP security. The first two focused on cleaning malware and preventing malware with software. This article will identify how to prevent malware with defensive computing habits.

The lists below are terse. Quick soundbites, easily digestable. Not so easily explained. The rationale behind some, including attack vectors, exploits and countermeasures could fill volumes. There are many blogs by security experts that cover vulnerabilities and exploits extremely well.  In this space we'll just focus on practical security measures, again for the "average" PC user.

 Safe Computing

• Don't login with Administrator rights. Make yourself a standard user and Run As... a separate Administrator privileged account only when needed. At least run applications that connect to the internet with reduced privileges via programs such as DropMyRights
• Don't install programs unless they're absolutely necessary. Screensavers, wallpaper switchers, video players, system "upgrades" and other freeware utilities often have a hidden (malware) reason they're free.
• Install programs only from trusted sources such as SourceForge at http://sourceforge.net/ or those reviewed by reputable third parties such as Gizmo at http://www.techsupportalert.com/  (yes, the name - I know) or to a lesser extent CNet at http://download.cnet.com - read the user reviews, not just the editor rating.

Safe Surfing

• Select websites from Favorites/Bookmarks or manual typing
• Never click on links in email, even from a sender you believe you can trust
• Search for websites instead of guessing the URL or risking a typo
• Use different passwords (and userids) for each website (use an encrypted password database like KeePass)
• Heed the warnings provided by McAfee SiteAdvisor in searching for websites
• Examine SSL certificate security warnings, don't just click through them
• Close popups via the taskbar vs clicking anywhere in the popup - right click on the taskbar, select Close
• Consider carefully entering personal data on a site that has a "This page contains both secure and nonsecure items" warning when visited
• Understand unexpected program launches caught by the outbound firewall
• Log out then close all browser windows after done using any site with financial transactions
• Keep only one browser window or tab open when performing financial transactions, don't multi task by general surfing
• Remember "Google is your friend" - search for file names, program names, virtually anything that you encounter that you don't understand. You don't need to be a computer genius to understand most results and make decisions.

Notes

• Firefox will not make you invincible.
• Even trusted websites can be compromised by partner content or bad programming
• NoScript is good, but actually makes you more susceptible (by default) to ClickJacking
• No one security program can do it all - think before you click

Windows XP Security - Protecting a Clean PC

Part two in a series on Windows XP Security. This article focus on keeping a clean PC clean - from malware. We're going to start with the assumption that we have a newly loaded Windows XP machine, preferably from the manufacturer's recovery CD, not yet connected to the internet. Possibly even from a cleanup on an infected machine, using techniques described in the first article in the series.

The steps below can be done in virtually any order, however do not place the clean machine directly on the internet without having installed a hardware router.  Don't wait to do it later, you're not as fast as the bad guys - they're automated.  Also, some may question the necessity of installing this many tools.  Each covers primarily one space and together they implement what is known as "defense in depth".

As with the first article's selections, the tools chosen may not represent an absolute best in breed, but focus on tool availability (aka "free") and potential acceptance for the "average" Windows PC user.   Based on personal experience with these recommendations, I believe they are within the grasp of all moderately experienced computer owners.

1. Install a hardware router in between your home network and the cable modem. Even if you only have one machine. Even if that machine is wired. Even if you don't think you can do hardware. This will greatly remove threat and network load on your PC because of the firewall implementation in the router. One I've recommended and installed for friends and family which is absolutely foolproof is the Cisco - Linksys E1000
2. Install all updates from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com   Configure automatic updates to occur on a scheduled basis, using the link on the site. Note the firewall warning below.
3. Set a system restore point following the instructions at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx . This can be done multiple times when known good configurations are achieved and in theory reverted to in the event of system corruption.  This is a good point to make the first one.  Learn how to restore from one too, before you need to.
4. Install a firewall that blocks outbound connnections. This is noisy at first because each first time you start an application the firewall will ask you if you want to allow the connection. If you can be certain that the requested action is the direct result of an an application you started, create a rule for it and you won't be asked again. One caveat is that you may have to manually run system updates as the firewall can block this process. Well worth it. My recommendation here is: Comodo - http://www.comodo.com/home/download/download.php?prod=firewall 
5. Install Microsoft Security Essentials. This contains anti-virus and anti-spyware from the mother ship, for free. http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/  Note that the vast majority of anti-virus applications on the internet are frauds. They themselves are malware. Choose from a major vendor or a trusted freeware evaluation.  These protections focus on free software tools. Particularly in the anti-virus space, there are excellent paid alternatives such as (in alphabetical order) Kaspersky, McAfee, Nod32, Symantec and Trend Micro.  Your ISP may provide one as well.
6. Install a monitor that watches when applications are added to one of multiple startup areas on your PC. You will be asked for permission before the application (or malware) can imbed itself there. Don't just say "No" to malware attempting to install an auto-start however, you'll still need to deal with the malware running somewhere on your machine.  One warning to this is that some programs that have auto-updaters will attempt to have their "Check for updates" program install each time they're loaded. It can be a nuisance, but the trade off is improved performance and free memory. You choose. My recommendation here is:  Startup Monitor  http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml 
7. Switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox. I'm not going to wade into the fervor that surrounds this one, however there are several add-ons to Firefox that I feel make the difference for the average user. Install Firefox from Mozilla, then the following add-ons: AdBlock Plus and optionally NoScript. NoScript may disable valid functionality on sites that you want to re-enable on a per-site basis (the discussion can get complicated quickly on this one). Like the firewall, this activity will be less over time, but helps reduce some browser based exploits on untrusted sites.  http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html 
8. Install McAfee SiteAdvisor to provide a first level threat rating of sites returned in Google searches. http://www.siteadvisor.com/  This ties directly to a safe computing recommendation (for the next article) - never type a url directly - search for it, then click the correct result.
9. Install Microsoft DropMyRights and configure to be able to run Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Outlook Express for example, with non-administrator icons. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms972827.aspx The following article de-mystifies implementation http://cybercoyote.org/security/drop.shtml  An alternative which is even better is to run everything as a non-admin, as described below.
10. Run as non-administrator.  This really should be first (second behind the hardware router/firewall) but is last because of the amount of software to be installed listed above.  In daily computer usage, new programs are almost never installed and so administrator rights are not needed and in practice are almost always a bad thing. Open the Control Panel, start the User Accounts applet and create a new account.  Give it administrator level rights.  Log in as the new administrator account, open the User Accounts applet again and drop your original account to a standard User.  Insure that the Guest account is disabled.  Insure that all accounts have non trivial, different passwords.  Log in to the original account.  You're done, start surfing.  If you ever find the need to run as an administrator, don't login to the administrator account, instead right click the program and select Run As... choosing the created administrator account.

One step not listed in above because it isn't really a preventative step is backing up your data.  Select a program and process that is workable for you.  Then execute it on a regular basis.  How often depends on how frequently your data changes and how much you can afford to lose.   I would personally recommend backing up to an external hard drive.  Others favor a burning to DVD's with offsite storage rotation.  Just do something.

While we're at it, if you're using a constantly on desktop PC, consider investing in a Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).  Not only will they provide battery backup in the case of power failures, they can condition line voltage to extend the life and reliability of your equipment.


Additional information on protecting your Windows PC can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/security/pypc.aspx and many more places on the web.  Remember "Google is your friend."

Disclaimer - no warranty is expressed or implied by this article.  Proceed at your own risk.  Understand all directions and consequences before using any tools or making any system modifications.  I have no affiliation with any product, service, or retail establishment listed above as they are given for illustration purposes only.

Windows XP Security - Cleaning An Infected PC

Every so often I'm asked for advice on PC's. Usually running Windows XP. Typically running so slow that the owner is ready to buy a new one. The question then usually comes in one of the following two flavors: "What computer should I buy?" or "What would you do?". To avoid keeping anyone in suspense, my two answers are "The computer you can afford, which you can test running all the applications you want to use." and "Backup all data, reload an operating system, prevent it from happening again." respectively.

So for those adventurous souls that want to remain on Windows XP and control their own PC destiny, I've decided to write what will likely be an article series on my recommendations for the following Windows XP Security topics: Cleaning an Infected PC; Protecting a Clean PC; Safe PC Usage; Linux Alternatives.

The series will cover malware software issues on marginally running machines. Not software boot errors. Not hardware problems. Not Windows versions other than XP.  Not using tools I personally haven't had some measure of success with.  Let's get started.

Like most who find themselves in their circle of family and friends as the designated "computer expert" I have my own answers to both questions in the first paragraph, using my own set of preferred tools and techniques. While this is not part of my current professional role, in the past I have been part of infrastructure support teams. That experience guides some of my choices but really isn't reflected directly in the tools and techniques chosen. Mostly because I've chosen to focus on tool availability and comprehension for the "average" Windows PC user. For this reason as well, some tools and techniques might not be the choice of the experienced technorati, but should be well with the grasp of most and still provide good results.

If you're unsure if this is what you want to do, those with virtually unusable PC's have the following options:

• Pay a computer tech to fix the problem. The well known Geek Squad charges fees that start at $149 for in store service.  I've personally known friends that have paid close to $300 when everything was said and done. Too expensive for me.
• Buy a new computer. A decent laptop will still set you back around $600.  This is the most expensive option, and does have advantage of temporarily having a new machine. If the problem machine still exceeds specs for the applications you need to run, I'd rather make sure its truly hopeless before going this route.
• Fix it yourself. Obviously where this article comes in. The financial cost of this route is minimal, limited to a blank CD or two and possibly a USB flash drive. It's likely that most people already own both. The real cost here is time, potentially lots of it.

Realize that in order to save hundreds of dollars in support fees or for a new system, you are becoming your own computer expert.  You don't have to be an expert in every computer domain - that's impossible for anyone. You just have to become enough of an expert this one time to fix this one problem. Another thing that is impossible is for this article to contain enough prescriptive advice to cover every situation and every tool usage scenario. As an aside, its primarily for that reason that I've resisted writing an article like this before now. Therefore, the instructions provided assume some level of computer usage (not support) proficiency and leave it up to the reader to Google specific questions regarding a tool or technique recommended.

Having a cleanly running second computer available to search for information, download utilities, burn CDs and other tasks can make this odyssey a whole lot faster and easier, effectively determining the success of the effort.

Backup Data

Backing up data at this stage, before any changes are attempted has the risk at this stage of potentially backing up infected files, such as malicious macros contained in the above filetypes, but do it anyway. If something goes wrong later, it will be worth every second spent.  You can always make a second known good backup later.

1. Create a bootable CD from a Linux live cd distribution on a working system. Linux Mint is a good choice.
2. Boot the suspect system from the CD. You may need to set the boot order in the BIOS of the system to select the CD ahead of the hard drive.
3. Copy all data to a USB flash drive. USB 8Gb drives under $20 can be found on sale.  Booted using Linux Mint, select Menu then Computer. Those who have used copy and paste file operations with Windows Explorer should be comfortable copying directories to the USB device.
4. Make sure that data for all users is backed up. Look in "C:\Documents and Settings" to see the profiles of each user on the machine. Under each, good starting choices for backup would be "My Documents" and "Favorites".
5. Only backup data files such as documents, spreadsheets, presentations, financial, music, photos, etc. Don't backup the actual applications themselves.
6. Backup your product keys, especially for Microsoft products such as Windows and Office. Product key finders can make this easier. Some applications will list their keys under the menu items Help / About.

Set Limits

Don't skip this step. Even for experienced PC technicians, cleanup can take hours of research, utility execution and experimentation. Professional support teams usually have limits they'll expend in investigation on unknown problems - some as short as 10 minutes for a unusable machine - then they reimage (reload) the operating system on the machine. Its faster (and more enjoyable) to reconfigure a clean, fast machine once reloaded, than to spend more time trying to clean a painfully slow infected one.

Clean Up

Download the tools below on a known good machine. Malware may block and/or infect these as the download and attempt to run. Plus the performance will likely be terrible - why you started this in the first place. Burn to a CD - not a USB flash drive, but a device that malware can't corrupt. Boot the suspect machine in safe mode with networking by pressing F8 once a second or so, after the BIOS spash screen (the first screen of any type) displays. Login as administrator, insert the tools CD you just burned, run or install each one at a time, according to directions on the download site. Some may not run in Safe Mode and will tell you so. Its still best to try first.

1. McAfee Stinger - http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/  Follow the steps on the download site.
2. Ad-Aware - http://www.lavasoft.com/  Install the application and all updates. Run a full scan.
3. Spybot-S&D - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html  Install the application and all updates. Run a full scan.
4. CCleaner - http://www.ccleaner.com/  Install and run the application. Use the Tools to investigate and Disable any suspected malware that is set to Autostart.  Google Tools you don't recognize by File, initially disabling (vs deleting) ones that are suspect.  Analyze and clean the system with the Cleaner. Scan and clean the Registry.  Reboot after usage.
5. Malicious Software Removal Tool - http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.aspx  Install the application and run a full scan.  Note that the tool itself is updated the second Tuesday of every month, with additional threat removal capabilities.
6. Browser Hijacks - For Internet Explorer, follow the steps at http://www.microsoft.com/security/spyware/browserhijacking.aspx  For Firefox, follow the steps at http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox  You may want to have a clean download of Firefox on the CD.

The next set of tools are actually built into the Windows operating system.  No download needed.

1. Task Manager - Ctrl-Alt-Del, choose Task Manager. Choose the process tab and look around. Columns can be sorted by double clicking on the header. Start with Googling "Image Name"s that have high CPU utilization, either constantly or in spikes. Stop any that you believe are malware by Right Clicking, then choosing End Process. Choosing the wrong one may de-stabilize your system.
2. Service Management - Press the Windows Key + R, type services.msc, press ENTER.  Focus initially on items that show Startup Type as Automatic. Google ones you suspect, then Disable by right clicking, selecting Properties... and using the dropdown for Startup Type.

The next tool isn't for downloading and burning to CD, but for execution on a machine that is running to the point where it can reliably bring up a browser to connect to the internet.

1. Trend Micro Online AV Scan - http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
   

Deep Cleaning

Can't get the anti-malware programs to launch from the CD? Perhaps a window or splash screen opens momentarily and then goes away? You no longer own your machine - a malware supervisor program is controlling what loads. Seriously think about reformatting the drive and reloading everything. If you're still in the game, these next two bootable CD's may keep you going. Focus initially on populating only the anti-malware tools. Be sure to have your original Windows CD handy. Building these is another task to perform on a clean machne.

1. BartPE - http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
2. UBCD - http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

A good summary of bootable utility CDs is available on LifeHacker.  Another good summary, including using PhotoRec to recover deleted files, is from CGSecurity.

Investigate

These can be used at any time. Check for high CPU utilization, strange file/process names, listening ports open to sites you don't recognize, etc. This is the truly deep dive territory, but remember - "Google is your friend".

1. Process Explorer - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx  Lists all running processes and open files.
2. CurrPorts - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cports.html  Lists all process and applications which have open connections (ports) to the internet, potentially sending out information or waiting for instructions
3. HijackThis - http://download.cnet.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html  Lists all locations on the PC that process are started from.
4. WinDirStat - http://download.cnet.com/WinDirStat/3000-2248_4-10614593.html  Graphically displays disk space utilization

So in closing, manage your time carefully and consider my original advice: "Backup all data, reload an operating system, prevent it from happening again." Backup was covered in this article, we'll get to the rest later.


Disclaimer - no warranty is expressed or implied by this article.  Proceed at your own risk.  Understand all directions and consequences before using any tools or making any system modifications.  I have no affiliation with any product, service, or retail establishment listed above as they are given for illustration purposes only.


Edit 2010.09.28 - Added specific browser hijack advice.  Clarified a few lines.
Edit 2010.10.04 - Added product key backup.
Edit 2010.10.15 - Added bootable CD links

Linux FLV to 3GP Conversion

A short how-to post for Android owners who want to run Adobe Flash video they've saved on their Linux system.

The music player on the Samsung Moment handles WMA, AAC, MP3, WAV, MIDI, and OGG format music files. The video player will handle MPEG4, H.264, and XVID formats. A fairly wide range of choices that have all worked right out of the box. The YouTube application works well for streaming video but doesn't have an option to open archived .flv Flash video. They need to be converted to 3GP to be played in the Gallery app.

The tool of choice to convert flv to 3gp is ffmpeg, however Ubuntu ships a version without the required libfaac codec due to licensing differences. To add the support, install the following packages from the packages.mediabuntu.org/non-free repository:

• libav*-extra-52
• libav*-unstripped-52
• libamrnb3
• libamrwb3
• libavutil-extra-49 (will be added automatically as a dependency)

Once those packages are installed, the following command will produce a video that can be played on the phone:

ffmpeg -i input.flv -s qcif -vcodec h263 -acodec libfaac output.3gp

Valid frame sizes (-s) at 4:3 are 128x96, 176x144, 352x288, 704x576, and 1408x1152. The qcif value is an alias for 176x144, more are listed in the video options linked below. You may want to experiment depending on the ratio of the original source.

Some useful resources if this doesn't work just right for you:

• The ffmpeg docs, particularly the video options
• The ffmpeg faq
• A ffmpeg how-to (very informative on cropping)
  

Like a lot of things, not too difficult in the final analysis. Just took a little time to find the right pieces and assemble them. Hopefully this will save someone some of that time.

Enjoy.

Audio Sync - PC to Samsung Moment

About two months ago I was fully assimilated into all things Google with the purchase of an Android phone, specifically a Samsung Moment. Overall the upgrade has been very smooth, opening up a whole new (to me) world of mobile communication options. One thing that was initially elusive to track down, was how to sync podcasts and music from a PC to the phone. This post contains the key elements of making it work, to maybe save others some time.

Initially, connecting the phone to a PC produced absolutely no action no the PC side. All my home PC's are various Linux distros so I thought that might be a problem, but attempting on a WinXP box produced the same results. While the following steps defy logic at some level, they are the only known - and repeatable - solution I've discovered:

- Select: Menu / Settings / Application settings / Development / USB debugging
- Toggle USB debugging on, then back to off. Reboot the phone. Connect the phone to the PC.
- The notification bar will show "USB Connected". Select the notice, then choose "Mount"
- The phone will now be available as a 2GB removable drive on the PC

At this point the SD card is mounted, but no music player (Rythmbox, Banshee, Windows Media Player, etc.) will recognize the device. The final puzzle piece is to place the a file named .is_audio_file at the root of the mounted drive. I found a site with documentation on the file format, and using it as a guide, created the following configuration which seems to work well.

audio_folders=music/,media/
folder_depth=2
output_formats=audio/mpeg,audio/ogg,audio/x-ms-wma,audio/wav,audio/x-aac
cover_art_file_type=bmp
cover_art_file_name=cover.bmp
cover_art_size=100

The music/ directory was created just to keep it separate from the media/ directory which was present already. Sync will only use the first directory in the list. Additional entries will allow the PC side player to search all supported media on the SD card. One last tech note - make sure to do a software eject / unmount before on the PC, then turn off USB storage on the phone, before disconnecting your phone when all sync'ing is done!

A few caveats though. Rythmbox shows the device simply as "2.0 GB Filesystem" while Banshee identifies it as "SAMSUNG_Android". Also, the cover_art settings above are effectively ignored as cover art transfer is a known problem with Android. There seems to be some online consensus that a paid app named "Album Art Grabber" will correct the problem, but I haven't tried it personally. Lastly playlists will not transfer as such, but must be recreated on the phone itself - not so good.

That sounds like a substantial list, but to stay current with a few podcast subscriptions and have a relatively small music collection for use during commutes, it works well enough. Those wanting to sync a more substantial collection or that would prefer a more complete experience may disagree.

As stated at the start, there is relatively little info available on this specific phone regarding sync features. The tech support for the carrier wasn't particularly helpful either. If anyone has a better configuration or complete solution for the Samsung Moment, particularly in Linux, feel free to post a comment.

Trans Siberian Railway

At the risk of sounding like a complete Google fanboy, I'll add one more Google offering into my list of vacation posts. Google has put together a mashup from several of its own sources into a virtual trip along the Trans Siberian railway.

The user can use the standard Google map navigation tools to zoom in/out and drag/scroll to different areas of the route. Clicking the blue line along the route loads the correct video and positions to the correct offset within the video. Since semi random selections might not pick up the most picturesque sections, there is also a travel route with starred entries that can be chosen.

There are also some preselected soundtrack options available and other features to explore.

Saving the discussion of the merits of virtual reality vs actual reality for another time, this seems like a neat use of technology to me. It provides an insight into a 150 hour journey that it is very unlikely that I'd ever pursue in real life. For that, the view of the 12 Russian regions and 87 cities is more than enough for me.

So whether its for exploring the Russian vistas or the use of technologies, give it a try. It somehow seems appropriate for a snowy day in Charlotte as well.

Enjoy!

The Local Computer Expert

Having a day job that involves anything above simply using computers automatically seems to qualify many people for the role of "computer expert" in their family and circle of friends. That confidence may at times be misplaced as the range of potential software and hardware issues now is so wide, that no one person can keep up with all support methods anymore. So enters Google and the age of instant expertise.

The web comic xkcd captures this well in their Tech Support Cheat Sheet.

A friend sent it to me and it is funny. Some of the other content on the xkcd site ranges from bizarre to risque, but this one seems spot on. However, the longer I look at the flowchart the more real it becomes. Maybe that's what makes it really funny.

In any event, print it out and tape it near your screen - it just might work!

Self Publishing

This post is somewhat a follow-up to the Unplanned Obsolescence one from about a week ago. In that time, I think I've got a handle on how to use some of the new self publishing tools. As before, this isn't a guide for anyone else, but simply what works for me.

The one that confounded me the most at the start - Twitter - may turn out to be one of the most useful day-to-day. A personal Twitter account seems well suited for sharing a quick thought that really isn't worthy of a full blog post or for one that I don't have time to write. Also, its original purpose of answering the question of "what are you doing" type status updates for anyone who cares to know, does work well.

The rich media content and access control obviously are part of what makes Facebook successful. Good for sharing family photos and updates that have no value in the public space. Many seem to use it for status updates also. The eureka moment for me was when I found out that Twitter and Facebook could be linked together with a Facebook application. Short thoughts and status updates now only need to be posted in one place. Longer family and friend related posts still go directly into Facebook itself. After reading today's paper, I have to say that I didn't have anything really in mind when I chose my profile picture though.

I don't think there is anything new to expound on related to the virtues or uses of blogging. However, just like using a RSS reader to follow a blog, there are new options for potential readers using Twitter. Using TwitterFeed as an intermediate mechanism, blog posts can also be followed via Twitter.

I'm still wary of oversharing, privacy risks, security and other elements of these mediums. Also, the parodys abound, particulary about Twitter. At times its easy to imagine that I'm just speaking into cyberspace, but if you've read this far - maybe not!

Unplanned Obsolescence

Is email becoming obsolete? Yet another tech article raised the issue recently and this time it struck a chord with me, as I've been trying to position email, blogs, Facebook and Twitter in my mind. One of my friends is is always on the cutting edge of web trends and has been prodding me to get connected via each. Well, I finally did and now am trying to figure out what to do with them. I've now staked a claim to my own name in multiple parts of cyberspace, but what's next?

This post isn't intended to be a definitive guide to any of these mediums, but more of a notepad as I (publicly) sort out my thoughts. It may have some value to others as they do the same, or explain to those who have tried to communicate with me via various methods why they haven't received instantaneous responses. If neither of those is of interest to you, like any post, feel free to stop reading and move on at any time. OK, now you've been warned!

Email of course is the no brainer of the bunch. Maybe because its what I understand best, but nothing seems to be better at one-to-one asynchronous communications of non trivial size or substance, for either personal or professional communication. It does have its limitations such as threading long conversations.

Blogging is good at one-to-many asynchronous communication. I originally started using it as a replacement for the "group emails" that I might occasionally have sent out on various topics. The RSS syndication and ability to subscribe (or not) provides a level of control for the reader. As a public medium, I'm always careful not to "over share", particularly in respecting the privacy of my family members.

Facebook's semi-public implementation of many-to-many conversation, both asynchronous, threaded and random - seemingly all at once - hasn't quite "clicked" for me yet. It has elements of blogging, with it's own feed reader in the form of a Wall and the ability to comment on posts. Facebook as a whole seems to invite a lot of "over sharing" on personal topics and relationships, which is probably what makes it addictive for many people.

Twitter I'm the most lost on. It seems to be some cross of IM and SMS messaging, but (mostly) sent out into a public void. I know it has ways to tag tweets for certain users, but it seems to be a really restrictive melding of Facebook and blogging.

The bottom line that while there may be overlap and crossover between the various communications channels, there is no right or wrong answer. Just choices and preferences. The irony is that all of them have ways to be alerted via email when one is updated. That tells me email probably won't be obsolete any time soon. So don't be surprised if that's how I continue to respond!

Easter in June

Not in the traditional Christian sense of celebrating the risen Savior of course (what did you expect) but in the tradition of software developers to put hidden features in their programs - usually that have nothing to do with the programs primary purpose. Those hidden features are typically known as "Easter Eggs".

Google has produced some amazing services and tools, not the least of which is the most comprehensive search the web has yet to see.

Hidden among all those offerings are a good number of "Easter Eggs". PC World put together a list of the top 17 from Google, including my favorite: the flight simulator inside of Google Earth.

I don't know how much of a hidden feature this is since it is actually well documented in the Google Earth User Guide but the list as a whole is a fun Friday diversion.

Enjoy.