AVG Upgrade to 9.0 and the Blue Screen Of Death

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I use AVG anti-virus / anti-malware software, among others, on my work computer. I like to keep everything up to date to make sure my computer doesn't get infected. So when the AVG software popped up a notice saying I could get a free upgrade to version 9 from version 8.5, I went for it - my bad!

AVG is excellent software, don't get me wrong. But when I upgraded to version 9 (which is said to be 6x faster and uses less resources than 8.x), it recommended uninstalling my other software, Symantec AV Corporate edition (which my college requires) and Sophos AV (which I was testing).

Once I uninstalled those pieces of software (this should be done automatically from the installer - I had to remove the software and restart the installer). I restarted the installer which then upgraded my version 8.5 to version 9.00. That's when my problems started.

I was going through the various components (it looked really really good - even had it's own firewall - which turns off windows firewall BTW), when I came upon the Rootkit scanner. I decided to try it out - That's when I got the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD)! I recovered from that and started researching the problem. AVG had some suggestions on their website, which turned out to be okay. Microsoft came back with a message after the error reporting went in that I had a bad driver (hardware or software) on my system.


When I came in this morning - another BSOD awaited me. After recovering from that I saw that a message I sent to AVG tech support was waiting for me in my inbox. I started to answer it when I got another BSOD. I restored my system to an earlier state (before the upgrade) and finished answering the email to AVG then started straitening out my system.

I'm hoping that AVG will be able to solve this quickly, because what I saw of the 9.00 version looked really nice and I like AVG a lot better than the Symantec product we are using here.

Rootkit detectors

I work at a cancer center as the IT guy.  One of the things I run into regularly is infected computers.  Many times these infections are NOT minor, so I've collected a slew of tools to deal with them.  One type of infection is the Rootkit.  I have a bunch of FREE tools I use to clean these.  These are portable tools, so that you don't have install anything on the computer in question.


A rootkit is a program or programs designed to make it so the user does not relize the system is infected in some way.  Rootkits are tenacious, they tend to install themselves in system files and rewrite themselves into other files when they are attempted to be cleaned by normal methods.  There are many methods by which infection occurs and that is another blog.  Because of the way a rootkit works it makes it very difficult to get rid of.

Image via Wikipedia

F-Secure has an excellent program called Blacklight.  It is very easy to use, just accept the caveats and click scan.

Sophos also makes a great application.  Their anti-rootkit program does require you to supply some basic information before downloading here, but it is worth it.  The sophos software is relatively easy to use just choose the type of scan and click scan.

Panda anti rootkit, Run Pavark.exe.  Accept the first screen, check deep scan, click scan, this will schedule a scan the next time your system restarts (you can restart right away or later).

Spybot Search & Destroy 1.6.2,  has a rootkit section.  Note that you must choose "advanced" from the mode menu, then choose rootkit scan.

Gmer is a more complicated application.  It is extremely good, but is aimed at the information Technology professional or at least someone more conversant with computers.  The GUI (Graphical User Interface) is not as easy to use as the other programs.

With anti-rootkits you should run at least 3 before feeling safe.  Some of these applications will identify false positives - things that seem like rootkits but are not - so be careful.  After running your anti-rootkit programs, if you found something, be sure to run an antivirus /malware application with up to date virus definition file to be sure to get rid of any vestiges that were left behind.

How "social" is social media?

The question occurred to me while I was on vacation. I hadn't brought a laptop, after all it was my vacation. I looked up from my reading to see the three other people I was with all typing on laptops and could only wonder 'Is that how I look?' Are we being anti-social when participating in social media online?

I guess when I am at the office and the only one there any way, I'm being more social when fraternizing online, but when there is more than one person in the room one must remember to not only be social online, but to remember the social niceties of society. This is not always easy, especially in this electronically tethered world.

We must keep in mind the people around us as well as our online family. I know from personal experience that it is all too easy to get caught up in something like twitter, facebook, or even email and suddenly realize that you've been at it for a few hours without relief. Sometimes I'll see someone in my family sit down to "just check email", or "just check my wall" and I know that extricating them will be a herculean task.

So, remember to take the actual people around you into account.

Retaggr all your social media sites in one place

Retaggr is a service that lets you put all (more than friendfeed offers) your social media sites or logins in one place and it creates an embedded card you can place on your blog (see the bottom of this page). The card is clickable and updates like the friendfeed embedded piece on the side of this blog.

First let's check out the site. Retaggr.com does, of course, have a pay version. The pay version let's you do a lot more customizing. When you first go to the site you are greeted by this screen:



Once you create an account, the site walks you through set up. You can even start by importing all your friendfeed info. The edit profile page is your starting area. Fill in the information to start your profile:



The next tab is the profile photo tab. You can upload a profile photo or use your gravatar.

The tab after that is the heart of retaggr. Here you enter all your sites. They are listed in categories



or you can click on the link to list them alphabetically.



There are more than you can imagine. And if the site you want is not there, which happened to me with a forum site, there is another place to enter that. Remember, you can import your friendfeed sites first then add more.

On the next tab you can add those profiles that weren't listed in the previous tab. Note that retaggr will even check out the site for you and try to capture an icon.



In the Blog tab you can add any blogs you have by entering the blog name, blog URL and Feed URL (this automatically puts a subscribe button next to the blog listing).



You can then add more widgets, professional information, and any affiliations.





When you are done, you can preview the retaggr card



And the retaggr profile page

Wakoopa the social software site

I recently started using another aspect of social media, a social software site called wakoopa. As with so many of the other social media sites I use, I was introduced to this by my son @chronotope on twitter. This site analyzes and tracks the software you are using on the computer you run it on. It tracks both the active application and the background applications. Not only can you review the applications you use, but you can also see other reviews and find other software. One of the options lets you set the site to alert you of software updates.



When you log in and start tracking your profile will look something like this. The top half shows your favorite applications and what you say about each one (you can mark anything as a favorite app), below that are the top ten pieces of software, according to your usage, divided into categories of the past week, past month, and newly used apps. Next to that is some basic info about your software usage and your level of usage according to how much you contribute, how many different apps you use, reviews you write, screenshots and icons you upload, etc.


The next part of the screen shows a usage history graph and some recently used apps (note that most stats are 1-2 days old). You will also see a message section, which can be used to communicate with people you have friended, and some of the point awards you have received to change your level. Below the Awards section is a section showing the most recent reviews you have submitted.



You can see what new software is being used and what people think about it. When you check out a piece of software on wakoopa, it lists other software that does the same thing. this can be real handy if you know a piece of commercial software but want a similar free version. Or if you are having trouble with a certain piece of software another app may do the same thing without giving you problems.

Other users reviews can be quite instructive and helpful in finding the appropriate app to use in any circumstance.

Another computer fixed, but interesting problem

Part of my job includes keeping all the computer equipment up and running here at the Cancer Center. This sometimes extends to our members. If they don't have someone else to help them out, I will troubleshoot their computer problems. This happened yesterday.

One of our researcher/clinicians called me about his computer (a PC). It was slow, very slow and the CD and DVD drive had stopped working. Since he was only 1 floor above me I went up to see what the problem was.

It was fairly easy to optimize windows for him, which took care of the speed issue. The more serious issue concerning the drives was the next step. After I had turned off the computer and disconnected everything I opened it up to find the power cables had been pulled out of both the CD and DVD drives! What was even more interesting than the power being pulled was the fact that one would have to reach behind the IDE cables in order to get to these plugs. It would have been very difficult to do, unless they had never been connected ...

He had to go to a meeting so I didn't get a chance to ask him when the last time he used the drives was, but I will eventually.