eicar - Antivirus Tester

People regularly ask me about the best antivirus solution for their computer. I think any latest updated antivirus is the best against latest malicious software like Viruses, Worms. All of we are used one or another antivirus software to protect us from malicious software. But we don't know its ability to protect us, even we don't test its performance. There is an European Institute named "eicar" which provides facility to test your antivirus software. The "eicar" stands for European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research.

It has good facility to test your installed antivirus software. If you want to test your antivirus software then copy-paste following text in notepad and save it with .com extension and scan it with your antivirus. It is not virus. Its just testing text which tests your antivirus software.

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS- TEST-FILE!$H+H*

You can create zip/multiple zip files from above text and carry out deep scan too. If you want to learn more and download antivirus testing file directly then visit following link below.
Anti Virus Test File.
.

Taskbar - Windows

It is the bar which is located on bottom of the Desktop screen. It is used to launch and monitor applications in Microsoft Windows. It contains Start menu, Quick Launch bar, System Tray, Display Running Tasks, etc. You can modify Taskbar as per your requirement.


I got a call for trouble regarding Taskbar. That machine didn't display running tasks in Taskbar area. I found that machine infected from viruses/worms. The viruses/worms might be edited that machine's Registry and made running tasks disable/hidden. I tried a lot to make it default. But, it didn't work. Ultimately, I found a .vbs script for same trouble. I downloaded that script and run it. It solved trouble and that machine's Taskbar worked normal as it before. You can download this magical script from following link.

>>> Download magical .vbs script here <<<

If you don't able to download said script then just email me. I will send this script to you.

Google Web Accelerator

It is cool application which boosts your web browsing. It uses the power of Google's global computer network to make web pages load faster. Just go to following link and download Google Web Accelerator (size: 1.66MB) and install it, and from then on many web pages will automatically load faster than before.

Download Google Web Accelerator here

How does Google Web Accelerator work?

Google Web Accelerator uses various strategies to make your web pages load faster, including:

• Sending your page requests through Google machines dedicated to handling Google Web Accelerator traffic.
• Storing copies of frequently looked at pages to make them quickly accessible.
• Downloading only the updates if a web page has changed slightly since you last viewed it.
• Prefetching certain pages onto your computer in advance.
• Managing your Internet connection to reduce delays.
• Compressing data before sending it to your computer.

Advantages:

• Just small downloading file size(1.66MB)
• It occupies less disk space (8.4MB)
• It increases your browsing speed
• It works with Internet Explorer and Firefox easily.
• You can manually settings to 127.0.0.1:9100 as proxy with any browser and use it.
• You can easily activate and deactivate it.
• You can bypass specific site from this application and don't accelerate it.

Disadvantages:

• It doesn't work with Dial-up connections like it does with broadband connections.
• It doesn't speedup encrypted and HTTPS pages.
• It tracks your surfing habit easily.
• It works as partially anonymous.
• You cannot stop it for particular web browser like either Internet Explorer or Firefox. It stops for all.

System Requirements:

• Windows XP or Windows 2000 SP 3+
• Internet Explorer 5.5+
• Firefox 1.0+

Browser Hijack

I got questions regarding term 'Browser Hijack'. It is most common attacks which modifies your default start and search pages. It is just small chunk of malicious code which alters your computer's browser settings so you are redirected to websites that you had no intention to visit. It changes/alters default home page, blocked some interesting websites(like orkut) , add bookmarks, redirects users to pornographic sites, generates unwanted pop-up windows. Sometimes, It disables Internet Options under Tools menu so you don't able to reset it.

I answered on same subject on Yahoo! Answers. It selected as best answer!! That guy had troubled surfing ORKUT His browser hijacked. So, he didn't able to open specific website. Please check following real screen shot.


Purpose - Browser Hijack:
(1) Advertisement
(2) Intentionally blocked some websites
(3) Increase traffic on specific sites
(4) Malicious activities

Medium - Browser Hijack:
(1) Email
(2) Messenger
(3) Requested link

If you are skilled then you can find affected areas in your system manually or you just need to install a software named 'HijackThis' which is designed by Trend Micro Incorporated. It is absolutely free software and you can download it from following site.

>>> Download HijackThis from TrendMicro <<<

Then install it and scan your system with help of this. This program scans the locations in your computer system that may be modified by browser hijackers and fixes any problems found. You can download the HijackThis software from following link too.

>>> Download HijackThis here <<<

.

Internet Options - Enable/Disable

Suppose you work at a place where you share your computer with others. They don't know much more about computer /Internet and every time they change IE's Internet settings which is best for in use. You can stop anyone to alter Internet settings by disable Internet Options under Tools menu. It is quite easy trick. As usual, you just need modify Registry.

Internet Options - Disable:
Type following text in notepad or copy-paste it and run/merge it. It will Disable Internet Options.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions]
"NoBrowserOptions"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions]
"NoBrowserOptions"=dword:00000001

>>> Download IE Disable Registry File here <<<

Internet Options - Enable:
Type following text in notepad or copy-paste it and run/merge it. It will Enable Internet Options.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions]
"NoBrowserOptions"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions]
"NoBrowserOptions"=dword:00000000

>>> Download IE Enable Registry File here <<<

Note: This trick works with Windows Vista too. Please try to compatibility.
.