St. George UT PC Doctor

See this link for a great collection of Conficker detection and removal tools.

Tags: conficker, malware, alerts

Your best defense? Make certain your PC is up to date on all critical patches for your version of Windows. Microsoft has modified it's free "Malicious software removal tool" to detect and eliminate Conficker.

How dangerous is Conficker? Dangerous enough that there is a $250,000 bounty on the heads of those responsible. It's the potential for havoc including password and identity theft that has IT departments scrambling to get a handle on this. Read more about this extremely dangerous worm here

Tags: conficker, malware, alerts

So you've just added additional memory to your computer because a friend told you it would help speed things up, but you haven't seen any improvement whatsoever. This could be because even though you've added more physical RAM to the computer, you haven't adjusted your operating system's virtual memory settings. Virtual Memory settings are usually created automatically at the time your Operating System is installed on your computer, so if you've upgraded with more physical RAM, you need to adjust the virtual memory settings accordingly. So how much virtual memory should you have? General rule of thumb is 1.5 times the value of physical RAM in the computer. This means if your computer has 2 GB Physical RAM (2048MB), your virtual memory (also known as a pagefile) should be 3 GB or 3072MB. Set this value by right clicking on "My Computer" Select the "properties" option and from there, the "Advanced" tab. Click "Settings" in the Performance section, and when the resulting dialog box appears, select the "Advanced" tab once again. Here you will see "Virtual Memory" in the bottom half of the window with the option to "Change". Follow the prompts to set your pagefile or virtual memory to the approriate value. I've provided a couple of screen captures below to point you in the right direction. If you're still uncertain, send me email and I'll be happy to guide you through!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: performance, pagefile, RAM, upgrades, virtual memory

A couple of days ago, I discussed keeping your system running efficiently with periodic HDD defragmentation. Under Windows XP and 2000 this is done by clicking on START > Programs >Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. From there follow the wizard to defragment your HDD. This can also be setup as an automated task on specified schedule so you can set it and forget it. Part 1 of my tutorial on scheduling an automatic HDD defrag under Windows XP and Windows 2000 is below. Look for part 2, scheduling automated HDD defrags under Windows Vista tomorrow.

Step 1 of 10: Click on START > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks

Step 2 of 10: Double Click on "Add Scheduled Task"

Step 3 of 10: When the scheduled task wizard starts, click "Next"

Step 4 of 10: From the Program Selection option, click "Browse"

Step 5 of 10: Using "Look in" navigation, navigate to C:\Windows\System32. Locate and open"defrag"

 Step 6 of 10: Select how often you want the defrag to run and click next

Step 7 of 10: Select start time and other parameters and click next. Helpful hint - make sure you select a time during which your computer is powered on but not in use.

Step 8 of 10: Windows requires that you enter a user and password (twice) so the task can run as if you were sitting at the machine. This will be your username and password. Click Next

Step 9 of 10: The task scheduler wizard confirms that you have setup your defrag task. Select "Open Advanced Properties" and click Finish

 

Step 10 of 10: In the "Run" box, it will say "C:\windows\system32\defrag.exe". You must add a SPACE and drive letter notation. So, for example, if you want to defragment drive C, you would modify the "Run" box to say "C:\windows\system32\defrag.exe c:" (without quotes). Click OK to finish. At this point, the scheduled task wizard will prompt you once again for your password.

Tags: maintenance, defrag, hdd, storage, scheduled tasks, optimization, performance, defragmentation, windows