The WinDefender2009 infection starts any of three ways. You can go to a corrupt porn web page, a corrupt website that promotes gambling, or you can open an attachment in a spam email. Any of those three ways will get you infected with WinDefender2009. On the porn and gambling related sites, WinDefender2009 will pretend to be a video codec or an ActiveX control.

WinDefender2009 is new on the wild web. It is almost a funny thought that a fake antivirus has upgraded itself, but that is the alarming reality. Once WinDefender2009 has its hooks into your computer you start getting alarming pop-ups tell you that your computer is infected. These pop-ups make the claim that only WinDefender2009 will remove your infection. We have seen WinDefender2009 before. WinDefender2009 is a clone. The names WinDefender2009 has been known as in the past are TotalSecure2009, TotalSecure 2009 and Total Secure 2009.

Once you click on the pop-ups your computer goes to a website with a fake scan. This fake scan will tell you files, which are really part of your operating system, are your infection. Sometimes the scan can name hundreds of files. This can be alarming for the uninformed computer user. We all want our computer to be healthy and work properly. So when faced with the possibility of such a large infection, the uninformed computer user can fall for the scam and purchase the full version of the software when suggested after the scan.


When WinDefender2009 is “purchased” you have traded your credit card information in exchange for a bundle of spyware, malware and adware. So you have paid for an infection. No just an infection though--you have paid for an infection that is difficult to remove. The spyware will monitor your behavior for personal information, log ins and passwords, which it will send to the original programmers. The adware will monitor your browsing behavior and present you with pop-up ads for products and services it deems relative to your interests and browsing habits. Your pop-up blocker will be useless against these pop-ups. In addition, the malware will run in the background and affect your computer’s performance, making it slow to start up or shut down. Your system tray icons, background and screensaver will be changed. Legitimate system files, registry keys, and DLL files will go missing, causing you to get the “Blue Screen of Death.”

WinDefender2009 is difficult to remove manually. If you miss any file, WinDefender2009 will reinstall itself on system startup. To deal with WinDefender2009 you need an antispyware program, not an antivirus. If you already have one, but you still have WinDefender2009, you should contact the makers of your program. In most cases the software companies will make a fix for any new threats their users have found. If your program claims to have removed WinDefender2009, yet it fails to do so, look for an antispyware program with a 100% removal guarantee. With new threats it can take months for all antispyware companies to come up with effective removal tools.

7 Steps to Get the Best Online Internet Security

The concerns of Internet Security have grown today like never before. Despite the continuous attempts of Internet community, the threats are increasing and getting more and more vicious by each passing day.

There are many Internet Security tools available in the market. Some of them are outstanding. But still, none of them is perfect. It can't be. The best protection is in your own hands. Follow a disciplined approach while using Internet services.

1. Be careful about using MS Outlook. Outlook is more susceptible to worms than other e-mail programs, unless you have efficient Anti-Virus programs running. Use Pegasus or Thunderbird (by Mozilla), or a web-based program such as Hotmail or Yahoo.

2. Take special precaution while dealing with email attachments. Be cautious about attachments with a double extension, such as .txt.vb or .jpg.exe, as the system will only recognize the extension to the extreme right, and run the file as such. Double extensions are often a good indicator that the file is malicious.

3. Do not use disks that other people gave you, even from work. The disk could be infected with a virus. Of course, you can run a virus scan on it first to check it out, but AV programs are not 100% effective.

4. Do not download software from just any website. If it is a reputable site that you trust, you are probably safe. The threat is not only from software; even other file types like .txt, .doc, .xml can have infections.

5. Be careful when surfing. You might get a malicious script from a webpage without even getting a warning. Tweak your Browser settings for maximum safety.

6. Try to balance paranoia with common sense. Some people get really weird about viruses, spyware, etc. It's just a computer! Back up your data and follow these steps, and it shouldn't be a big problem.

7. Setup your download manager to scan a download first before you open it. When you click to download a file from Internet, generally browser gives two options. To save it on the Disk or To Open the file with the default program. Always choose the first option, because, it ensures that the download is first scanned with your antivirus, before saving it on the disk.

10 Tips to Make your Windows Computer Faster

Your computer running Windows isn’t running in the same speed that it used to run when you first used it. It’s slower, crappy, takes a while to start and tests your patience like anything. There are many reasons for this, let’s try fixing up a few things on your slow Windows PC:

Slow Start Up
There can be a variety of reasons to Windows loading slow during start up. Go to Run, type msconfig and hit enter. Under the ‘Start Up’ tab, uncheck the unwanted programs and press OK. Things should be a bit fine the next time Windows boots.

Another program worth mentioning here is StartUp Delayer which will help in setting after how much time programs should be loaded after Windows boots. For instance, you could set your instant messenger program to load 50 seconds after Windows starts up.

Slow Loading Start Menu
If the Start Menu items are loading slowly, you can open the Registry Editor by typing in the Run menu ‘regedit.exe’ and pressing Enter. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Look for MenuShowDelay, and double click to edit the value. The lower the number specified, the faster the Start Menu will load.

Slow Right Click Context Menu
Probably the Windows Right Click menu on your computer is loading slow because too many programs added unwanted entries there. Just download this program called Mmm, install it and then modify your context menu to remove unwanted items to speed it up.

'Send To' Menu Slow Send To Menu
If the Send To menu loads slowly, you can type ’sendto’ in the Run Dialog, and remove unwanted items in the Explorer Window that appears. This should add some speed to it.

Slow Defragmentation
The Windows Defragmenter can’t get any slower. You need to have an alternative to the Windows Defragmenter, and Defraggler is just one of the best ones available in the market. It’s free, and works like a charm and can speed up defragmentation manifold. For some alternatives, see Five Free Programs to Defragment your PC.

Slow loading My Computer Window
my-computer.jpg If the My Computer Window loads slowly, in the Explorer Window, go to Tools>> Folder Options>> View and uncheck ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers”

Slow loading Add or Remove Programs Applet
This is one of the most annoying piece of programs present in Windows, it takes ages to load if you have a considerable number of programs installed on your computer. You can either use the all-in-one CCleaner for this purpose, or get MyUninstaller that comes as a speedy replacement for Add or Remove Programs.

Slow Ending of Unresponsive Programs
If you’ve clicked on ‘End Task’ if any program is running unresponsive, you might have noticed that the program is not terminated immediately. You can alter this by going to Run>> regedit.exe>> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ and change this value to 1000.

Disable Animations and Appearance Overhauls to maximize performance
If you’re a serious performance junkie, you probably won’t bother about eyecandy. Go to System Properties in the Control Panel. Click ‘Advanced’, then ‘Performance’ and click ‘Adjust for best performance’. This might boost your PC’s performance up a bit.




Additional Tips:

- Always keep your computer clean. Remove Junk and Unnecessary registry entries. Use CCleaner for this purpose, one excellent tool that just does what it says.

- Don’t keep installing software. Install a program only if it really serves you a purpose.

- Keep as less programs as possible running on the System Tray. This essentially means reducing the number of programs that start during Windows start up.

10 Tips: Prevent from Viruses

1. Regularly install updates for your anti-virus software.
New viruses are constantly appearing - unless you have updated your software, it may not have the necessary information for handling new virus types and variants. When you install an update, new entries are added to the software's virus definitions database so that suspect files can be recognised and dealt with. F-Secure issues a new anti-virus update daily, and unless you change the settings, will remind you every seven days that you should update.- normally, every couple of weeks should be considered the longest you should leave it. Make a special effort to update when a new virus "hits the headlines".

2. Think twice about using Outlook Express for your e-mail.
Outlook Express is too closely bound up in its workings with Internet Explorer and your access to the World Wide Web to maintain adequate security. Using more self-contained e-mail client* software, it's pretty well impossible for a virus to enter your computer except through your opening an infected attachment. With Outlook Express, simply through an e-mail being displayed in the Preview Pane you can be taken straight to a website from which infected script is loaded up on your computer. A patch has been issued by Microsoft to deal with this glaring security hole, but this has been severely criticised by independent evaluators. For more information, click here. It's much better to use fully-fledged e-mail client software, such as plain Outlook, First Class Conference etc. for handling your e-mail.

* The client-server relationship is something which you'll keep coming up against when you use Internet services - your computer needs the appropriate client software installed so you can use the services of particular types of server - e-mail, ftp (file transfer protocol), web. A server is just a "dedicated" computer - one which serves a specific purpose in a network.

3. Don't open e-mail attachments unless you know who's sent them and what they are. Change your view settings so you can see file extensions.
This is much more important with some types of file than with others - you can recognise different file types by the extensions they have. .EXE, .COM, .PIF, .JS, .VBS, .SHS, .SCR, .DOT are some of the most notably dangerous. Double file extensions - for example "readme.txt.vbs" - should always be treated with suspicion.
Look out also for oddities in the header information of e-mail messages - a sender you've never heard with a subject such as "sorry about yesterday"; a blank subject header.

On many computers, the default setting means that you see file names without their extensions. So, suspect attachments won't be immediately evident. To set your computer so that you see file extensions:open My Computer or Windows Explorer. From the View menu, select Options, then click the View tab. Make sure that "Hide file extensions for known file types" isn't checked.

4. Never leave a floppy disk in the drive when you start up or restart your computer.
This is the standard, old-fashioned pre-Internet way of passing on viruses. By default, your computer looks first for its operating system to the floppy disk drive, and only then to the hard disk. So, if an infected diskette is on the drive, off goes the virus when you boot up. Always reformat old disks before you reuse them. A virus may have been lurking on it for years. If you have the confidence to change your computer's BIOS settings, it's a good idea to alter the boot sequence to C: A: This will set your computer so that it refers first to the hard disk instead of the floppy drive when it boots up.

5. CDs and Zip disks can carry viruses too.
Now that Internet-transmitted viruses are far more popular than disk-transmitted ones, this isn't all that common. But it remains a possibility! You can run an anti-virus scan on any kind of diskette - this never does any harm.

6. If your anti-virus software reports a suspect file, take all possible action before you close down your computer.
Familiarise yourself in advance with your anti-virus software so that you know what decisions to make in an emergency. It's at the stage of booting up again that a virus file can pass all of its nastinesses into your operating system, and into your system registry.

Whatever anti-virus software you're using, you're likely to run into situations where a file is recognised as suspect, but contains a new or unusual virus which isn't included in the software's virus definitions database. If this happens you will be told that the suspect file can't be disinfected, and offered the choice to rename or delete it. Delete unless you have very good reasons for thinking it could be a wanted and important file.

F-Secure users in this situation may find it something other than intuitive that you must press the Back button to return to the screen where, when disinfect has failed, you can choose the delete or rename alternative. Don't press the Finish button!!

7. Make sure you have a system start-up disk to use in emergencies.
If a virus does manage to infect your system, it could mean that you can't load Windows. Without a start-up disk, which will be different for different computer models and operating systems, you - or anybody you call on for help - will have a much harder time rescuing your system in the event of failure. This applies whether or not failure is due to a virus infection. If a start-up disk wasn't supplied with your computer, follow the appropriate link (Internet connection required) to Microsoft's instructions for making one: Windows 95/98 ;Windows ME; Windows 2000; Windows XP.

8. When using Microsoft software, always make sure that you keep macro virus protection enabled.
Macros are stored sets of instructions which are used within Microsoft Office applications to automate complex or repetitive tasks. Unfortunately macros can also be used to introduce viruses. Macro virus protection is set from within each of the Office software applications:
Office 97: from the Tools menu, select Options, then General. By default protection is enabled - don't switch it off!
Office 2000/XP: go to Tools | Options | Security. With Macro security set to medium, Word warns of macros in a file and prompts whether you want to disable them. High security automatically disables all "unsigned" macros.

If you receive a macro warning when you open a Microsoft Office file, always select the "disable macros" option unless you expect the file to contain a macro and know that you can trust it.

9. Only download files from trustworthy websites.
Always avoid downloading files from bulletin boards or public newsgroups - these are particularly likely to be used by virus writers to distribute their new viruses. When downloading software updates (for instance drivers, multimedia players etc.), go to the manufacturer's official website. Be watchful!

10. Never pass on a virus warning without checking first yourself that it isn't a hoax.
Hoax virus warnings can be more than just a nuisance - they may be almost as dangerous as viruses themselves. For example, you may be instructed to delete a file from your computer in order to prevent a virus infection, when in fact the file is an essential system file. Before passing on any virus warning message, check on the specific virus you're being warned about at the F-secure website, or the website of any other producer of reputable anti-virus software.

U3 - Portable USB Apps Platform; Secure your USB Drive

It's official, the floppy drive is dead. Indeed, Dell and a plethora of other PC manufacturers have simply stopped including the decades-old drive, thanks in no small part to the smaller, lighter, and faster USB flash drive that can carry over 1,000 times the standard 3.5" floppy. We've watched the evolution of the portable data disk, but now it's time to take that evolution a step further.

Enter the U3 smart drive. Co-developed by SanDisk and M-Systems, the open-standard U3 platform allows users to take their applications, not just data, with them to any USB-equipped Windows PC and to launch them with as little as two clicks. True, while applications have been tweaked by users to run directly off a flash drive, applications written for U3 smart drives don't require a geek to set up, and are 100% legal to operate.

Two Letters for the Price of One
The first time we plugged our retail Geek Squad U3 Smart Drive into the computer, Windows automatically recognized the drive and set the Add New Hardware wizard to work, identifying not one but two drives taking up two drive letters.
A small, 4MB read-only system partition of the U3 drive pretends to be a CD-ROM drive, while the data partition shows up as a regular flash drive. Because Windows is led to believe that the system partition is a CD, U3 takes advantage of the AutoPlay feature in windows to automatically run the U3 LaunchPad and unlock the data partition of the drive. It should be noted that U3 will run on any Windows 2000/XP system, regardless if the user has administrative rights or not.

After the LaunchPad's animated splash screen disappeared, we were greeted by an Oddcast talking presentation of the U3 platform's features and a quick intro of how to use the LaunchPad and download additional applications. Kudos goes to whoever thought of using the Oddcast system for a quick intro of how to use the drive, as it provides a user-friendly way for new users and computer-illiterate types to quickly jump into using the drive.

Apps Ahoy!
The LaunchPad is the heart of the U3 smart drive, and bears a striking resemblance to the Windows XP start menu. Accessed from a U3 icon in the system tray, it provides quick access to applications and documents installed on the U3 smart drive, as well as mean to manage them.

The left side of the LaunchPad lists the installed applications and next to their icons, with a convenient Download Programs link underneath that links to the U3 software catalog. The right side of the LaunchPad contains links to open the data partition in an explorer window, manage installed apps and the drive itself, and get help.

Programs can be either downloaded via the built-in web browser (barebones Internet Explorer), or installed from a file on the local computer. In the case of the Geek Squad drive, we are given a third option to download software from the Geek Squad's software catalog (actually hosted by M-Systems, one of the U3 co-founders), which is just the three applications and intro that came preloaded. Not that it matters to most users, but there are two file-types associated with the U3 platform. *.u3i is an XML-based text file that defines the application's version, download path and working parameters, whereas *.u3p is a zip file containing everything needed to run an application.

Most users will find themselves downloading new programs from software.u3.com. While somewhat quirky in design, the site organizes the various applications into 9 different overlapping categories that can then be sorted by name, price, or download availability. Quick links to download freeware or trialware allow users to quickly try software before making a purchase decision. A Top-5 Downloads and Coming Soon section also help to see what new applications everyone's raving about.



While some of our favorite applications like Dmailer, Thunderbird, Trillian, Winamp and McAfee AV are already out for download, it's quite interesting to see what's headed to the platform. Skype's PC to Phone VoIP service, Firefox's superior web browser, PocketSearch's file content search, and PocketCache's snapshot-based backup system are sure to make a splash when they become available, and there's even a DVD authoring program headed for the drive. What strikes us as odd however is that we couldn't find any word processing applications mentioned yet, so for now we'll just have to fill the gap with Portable OpenOffice.

Once a U3 application is installed on the drive, you can specify the order in which it appears in the LaunchPad, and tell it to start every time the drive is plugged into a computer. Detailed statistics on the version, footprint of the program, last run time, and vendor are also available.


For Your Eyes Only
It's possible to lock down the U3 smart drive's data partition with a password so that files will remain secure from prying eyes, complete with password hint. When security is enabled, the CD-ROM partition will load first, and will only enable the data partition after authentication. A password hint can be specified for those with bad memories, and in a worst case scenario the entire data partition can be erased if the password is truly forgotten.

Enabling security comes at the expense of backwards compatibility however. Because U3 is only compatible with Windows 2000 and XP, any Mac, Linux, or Windows 98/ME users will not be able to authenticate themselves to see the partition. When plugged into a Mac running OS X 10.3, we didn't see the data partition at all until security was disabled. Users working in a cross-platform environment may wish to look into an alternative security application to secure their documents. Also, it is unclear if files stored on the drive are encrypted or not, but most likely they are not because it takes mere seconds to enable security for a near-full 512MB drive.



One curious discovery we made was mention of a self-destruct feature in the U3 help files, stating that after a certain amount of invalid password attempts, the drive would lock itself permanently requiring a total reformat. We tested this on the Geek Squad drive, but after 100 invalid password attempts our data was still accessible. Only time can tell how secure the U3 platform really is.

The Bottom Line
U3 is an important step in the evolution of how we get our work done. User-friendly and well documented, U3 smart drives are something that we could actually give to our grandparents without worrying about how many times they'll be calling us for tech support.

In the future when office applications are released, parents can send their U3-equipped kids off to college knowing that they can get their work done on any of the school computers without having to buy an expensive laptop. Perhaps most importantly, people with multiple computers will actually be legal and don't have to deal with paying over $300 on products like Office thanks to End User License Agreements (EULAs) being written per flash drive instead of per computer.

About the only thing we can see wrong with the U3 platform is the lack of cross-platform compatibility, but that might change later on now that Macs are going x86.

By Scott Clark, Consumer Technology Editor
Edited by Alternator

How to Repair a Malfunction USB Flash Drive

Flash memory, flash drive, pen drive and memory drive are just some of the names that are used to refer to USB flash drive. It is a compact device that was developed to be a secure and safe data transfer as well as data storage gadget. While this travel data storage device may seem to be perfect, it is still possible that it might corrupt your data. Just like in any other technology, a USB flash drive is also prone to technical problems that often lead to the corruption or loss of data. Assuming that its hardware is undamaged, doing a re-format can solve USB problems.

USB formatting is as easy as A-B-C. First, you have to right click on the removable drive corresponding to where the USB was inserted, and then click on the "format" option. Or you can try using the file system drop down, where options "FAT and FAT32" are available. Choose the FAT option, it will reveal format utilities, then click on the "Quick format" option then press on "start" to initiate format operations. This way, all the data that the USB contains will be deleted, but the errors will hopefully be gone. Usually, errors or malfunction occurs during file transfers or data storage. For simple drive errors, scanning and re-formatting can work. In this manner, all the bad sectors of the USB will work like new.

When formatting does not solve your USB problems, you can make use of an alternate method. For more complicated USB problems, you will need to check the bios first to determine the actual problem. Before doing that, it is advised that you backup all the files from your hard drive to another hard drive, CD or DVD, and then turn off your computer. Insert your problematic USB on the drive port and turn on the computer. When the system bios are prompted, immediately press the F8 key. For some computers, it is the delete key or F2 key that initiate bios checking and take note of the operators that are listed on the screen. Using the cursor keys, navigate the bios and boot the CD drive first, save and then exit. Insert your operating system restore disk, save and restart. Simply follow the cue that initiates installation of your operating system. When the USB disk appears on the list of which drive format comes, then your USB is in the clear.

Depending on the options, you must opt out the re-installation of the operating system at this point. If it is still running, simply quit and leave the other drives alone. Try to reset the computer to boot from the disk instead of the CD drive as before. If your USB flash drive is already usable, it must now be detected in windows. If you fail to do this operating system re-installation, then just continue following the installation instructions. However, never try to install the operating system onto the USB disk drive.

Before going over your USB problems and trying out some troubleshooting tricks, have all your files backed up first, this task is something that must not be taken lightly. Although formatting seems easy, it is a lengthy process that needs to be done by somebody who fully understands the application. If everything else fails, get hold of your USB's warranty so you can get it fixed from customer support.

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1. http://www.milw0rm.com/
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4. http://www.governmentsecurity.org/
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Portable Antivirus Website Down?

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