Docunext::Weendoze

Remove Zentom System Guard

2011-09-03T21:07:03Z

The process of removing Zentom System Guard sucked so badly in my experience. Everything I tried was foiled:

Unable to start task manager
Unable to uninstall it via the control panel

The only thing that kind of worked was powershell, and then launching the task manager from administrative tools.

Too bad there are just as many crappy websites out there selling and offering software that could be just as obnoxious as Zentom System Guard.

I thought Windows 7 had resolved this issue of malware that affects Microsoft operating systems. Apparently not.

I think I was able to remove Zentom. One of the tactics they use is to randomize the name of the executable. In my place, it was: kocinc700k.exe. Perhaps the publisher stays the same. For me it was Innoware Corp. - apparently a real company but from what I gather has nothing to do with software.

UPDATE: I’ve since completely rebuilt this machine using the restore functionality included by Lenovo.

So far, so good, but I do note that since I’ve now enabled Windows auto-upgrades, the notebook reboots unexpectedly and its very annoying.

In the future I might try Malwarebytes.

A Plan to Use "Remote Assistance" to Troubleshoot Outlook IMAP to GMail Problems

2010-12-05T03:58:47Z

One of my clients is experiencing performance issues with Outlook accessing Google’s IMAP service.

To fix this situation, I’m planning to use remote assistance to control their PC and make the necessary configuration changes.

UPDATE: Despite my best efforts, I just could not get “Remote Assistance” to work. Shucks. Perhaps I should have simply tried GoToMyPC or something similar.

UPDATE 2: I am using Remote Desktop at my new place of employment regularly and it works quite well, but I still prefer VNC.

Microsoft Security Essentials

2010-11-14T15:08:26Z

I’m very glad a co-worker told me about Microsoft Security Essentials!

Why? Primarily so that the notifications center will stop telling me that my Windows setup is insecure. I consider Windows to be an inherently insecure product, and while I find it affirming that Windows itself agrees with me, I find it obnoxious for it to keep alerting me of this fact, and somehow trying to pin the blame on me, the user.

Back to Microsoft Security Essentials - its available at for no fee from the Microsoft website:

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

OpenVPN on Windows

2010-10-31T05:13:44Z

I’ve worked with OpenVPN a bunch before, but never on Windows. I heard good things about the two working together from reliable sources, and they were right.

I wrote up more about this at Docunext:

OpenVPN Fun

XPS Disappoints Me

2010-10-30T21:18:02Z

What is XPS?

I had never heard of XPS prior to today when I tried to print a document from Internet Explorer to a file, preferably PDF, but Postscript would have been acceptable as well.

Based upon some web pages I found through Google when searching for a utility to convert an xps document to a format usable on GNU/Linux, I was led to believe that xps was a failed effort on the part of Microsoft to replace pdf.

Is There No Way To Convert it to PDF Using Open Source Software?

I was also led to believe that there is little to no support for xps on GNU/Linux.

There are commercial tools with names that sound like open source packages, like xps2pdf. Thanks, but no thanks, I’d rather support the open source community by using open source software, writing documentation, reporting bugs, and contributing code.

What now?

I guess I’ll have to leave the xps documents I created on the Windows machine now. I don’t really want to do anything with them, I just want to save and file them. I will deal with it later.

I’ve had bad numerous bad experiences with proprietary file formats in the past, including scenarios where the owner of the specification goes out of business (or bought) and the format is discontinued, so I just did a quick check to make sure that XPS is supported on Windows 7. It is, so XPS should be around for at least five years - I hope!

Still Using Windows 2000!

2010-06-25T20:32:00Z

I have an old copy of Windows 2000 installed in a QEMU image which I'm still planning to use. Now that I've finally gotten my hands on a cheap laptop that supports KVM extensions, (KVM is an advanced version of QEMU with integrated CPU-capabilities, like AMD-V and Intel VT, support) I'm running Windows updates and its cool to learn that Microsoft still has the updates online.

I'm now wondering if Internet Explorer 6.0 is the most recent version that can run on W2K. I can install Firefox, but apparently Google's Chrome requires at least Windows XP.

Ha! German Government Advises AGAINST Using Microsoft Internet Explorer

2010-01-17T17:10:25Z

This doesn't surprise me, but it does amuse me!

I've been suggesting to my clients, friends and family members that they consider using Firefox or Google Chrome instead of Internet Explorer for quite some time now. Most of them report back that they prefer the alternatives.

Outlook IMAP Bug

2010-01-12T19:57:11Z

See my post about this at Informed Email:

Outlook IMAP Bug

MSCONFIG

2010-01-02T01:55:40Z

In my opinion, MSCONFIG is very useful for configuring Windows machines, particularly statup items.

Convert a ".pptx" File to a ".ppt" File

2009-11-19T18:17:09Z

Files that end in ".pptx" and ".ppt" are Microsoft PowerPoint files (unless they are improperly named, of course).

The ".pptx" file extension indicates that the file ware saved in Microsoft's XML-based file format, whereas the the ".ppt" format indicates that it was saved in earlier versions of Microsoft's file format.

If I understand correctly, newer versions of Powerpoint automatically use the pptx format. Unfortunately, older, but still recent, versions of Powerpoint are unable to open pptx files.

Thankfully OpenOffice, a free and open source office productivity tool, can open and save in both formats. Today I used "ooimpress" to do just that. The only problem I had was due to a missing font, so I simply made some adjustments and saved in the ppt format.

UPDATE: I just received confirmation that the Windows user who was unable to open the .pptx file was able to open the .ppt file that I converted with OpenOffice!

Windows 7 Released with Known Critical Bug

2009-10-29T06:11:23Z

Thanks MJ Ray:

Windows 7 Released with Known Critical Bug

I'm not surprised. I continually describe Windows as a "black box" which prevents anyone from looking inside, unlike open source operating systems like Debian, CentOS, and the BSDs, which explicitly allow people to look inside and see what's going on, and even fix things.

Funny Windows 7 Description

2009-10-25T16:53:43Z

Thanks slashdot commenter tenzig_112!

Windows 7

2009-10-23T00:16:59Z

I'm not going to try Windows 7 anytime soon, and I'm surprised that people are willing to try it out considering how many bad reviews of Vista I've read.

In six months, I'll consider trying it out. If its better than Vista, I'll consider recommending it to my customers, family and friends.

A Redmond Company

2009-09-22T00:08:42Z

Microsoft Building in Chevy Chase, MD

Vista and Power Management

2009-08-24T22:31:59Z

I use Vista as my entertainment center for two reasons:

Netflix supports it for their watch it now service
I have a laptop with a broken screen that I came with Vista on it

Since I don't really use it for anything other than watching TV, it doesn't cause me too many problems.

One continuous annoyance remains, however. Whenever I run media player or Internet Explorer, the power management settings change to have the machine go to sleep after five hours.

No matter how many times I've changed the settings back. It still happens.

Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.