Tag: Windows 7

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Persistence of bootkit

Platform: Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Symptoms, but not limited to:

  • Search results using browser search box including Chrome and Internet Explorer 9 Omnibox are redirected to other sites.
  • Internet Explorer is running in the background on login, using large amount of memory.

After long troubleshooting sessions I figured out that a bootkit was present on this computer.

A bootkit hides itself by modifying the master boot record.

The particular bootkit I was dealing with was not detected by Combofix, Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and many others. The only anti-malware program detected the bootkit was Hitman Pro 3.5.

If you are dealing with a persistent malware infection that redirects search results, try using numbers of anti-malware softwares. In addition to that, search for “Google redirect virus” using an uninfected computer. The malware redirects search result system-wide. On the infected system, search results were redirected on Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome and Firefox. The malware will redirect search results on any browsers installed on the system.

It is almost 5 o’clock in the morning. I have not had a minute of sleep. I’ll clean up this post later.

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Windows 7 Experience Index on 2011 15-inch MacBook Pro Core i7.

I finished installing Windows 7 on 2011 15-inch MacBook Pro Core i7 through Boot Camp early this morning. Why you asked? Because there’s a specific audio software that would run on Windows. I tried using virtualization within Mac OS X but it performed so poorly. I did upgrade the RAM to 8GB.

Anyway, here’s the Experience Index:

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Seriously, can you give me the discs already?

One thing I really hate about buying computers for the past few years is the absence of OS Installer Disc or The Recovery Discs. Of course there are exceptions to the rule.

Seriously, I need to burn 10 DVD’s for the recovery discs? Come on.

Some people blames Microsoft for their insistence on not giving end users Windows Installer Discs. After all, the consumer are all pirates inside right?

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Windows 7: File Deletion Bug.

I was moving a few files from a network drive to local hard-drive on a Windows 7 computer. For some odd reasons an error occured mid-transfer and Windows 7 deleted the files both on the network drive and local drive.

I managed to replicate the issue.

Still looking into this problem on Microsoft Support site and others.

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

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Thought of The Day: Windows 7 is a knee-jerk reaction.

Having been using Windows 7 since the early Beta to the RTM and now the retail version, I really think that it is a knee-jerk reaction to consumers’ knee-jerk reactions to Windows Vista. If that’s not a run-on sentence then please pretend that it is not.

Windows 7 is definitely an improvement over Windows Vista. It seems to run snappier than Windows Vista. Under the hood, Windows 7 is not much different than Windows Vista. The UI in Windows 7 resembles of that Windows Vista’s. So what’s new with Windows 7?

The tech community seems to agree that Windows 7 is a polished Windows Vista. It is Windows Vista cleaned-up. I can’t help myself from asking the question why Windows 7 still costs to much for consumer to buy? Are there any significant benefits upgrading to Windows 7 from Windows Vista? Is it wise to upgrade a Windows XP computer  to Windows 7?

Honestly, it’s better to buy a new computer with Windows 7 pre-installed.

Windows 7 now features a less annoying UAC (User Account Control). If you’re running as an administrator, UAC will bug you a lot less to a point it wouldn’t bug you at all. In a way that’s a step back in security from Windows Vista.

I am interested in what Microsoft could come up with the successor to Windows 7. Plase do not call it Windows 8.

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FSF: Microsoft’s Windows 7 Deadly Sins

No! It is not FFS. It’s FSF. It stands for Free Software Foundation.

It’s “Free” as in Liberty, noat as in free beer.

As much as I believe that there are a lot of Hippies out there involved in the Free Software Foundation, I still wonder why I’m making this very statement.

Let’s get to the main story. As I read an RSS item from Slashdot (lots of Hippies are frequenting this site), one really caught my short attention span. Well because it is on the top of the RSS feed and the only unread items at that moment. I was previously offended by the troll-behavior of Microsoft P.R. team (Paul Thurrott, Ed Bott and  Mary Jo Foley with the addition of Randall C. Kennedy) as described by Tom Reetsman. By the way, Reetsman (via The Small Wave) just posted his take on Thurrott’s rants against anything that is not Microsoft; specifically Apple. Well, at least Thurrott has one loyal supporter (an accomplice *cough*) defending everything Thurrot said and attacking the non-Microsoft company (namely Apple in this article).

Oh where was I? I told you my attention span was short.

Free Software Foundation, Inc. has created a site titled “Windows 7 Sins – The case against Microsoft and proprietary software.”
http://windows7sins.org/

Don’t worry Apple haters, they mentioned “proprietary software.” Apple does make proprietary software, therefore guilty by association. I bet that Thurrott is trying hard to make himself look neutral by attacking other companies that make “proprietary softwares.” We all know that Thurrott lives off Microsoft’s business model.

I prefer to slack than copying and pasting the arguments brought up by FSF. I get the message, but I do not blindly agree to every single point they make. I do take advantage of many things the Open Source Community have to offer in the past and present. I am pretty sure that it will be a similar situation in the future. I do also believe that propriety was born out of necessity. I don’t mind proprietary software as long as we have other alternatives. I’m pretty sure that  Google has some kind of proprietary software. I still use Google as my main search engine; Microsoft can Bing themselves.

OK, I opted not to slack as much by echoing FSF’s argument points:

  1. Poisoning education
  2. Invading privacy
  3. Monopoly behavior
  4. Lock-in
  5. Abusing standards
  6. Enforcing Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)
  7. Threatening user security

If you feel compelled to say that there are other companies also guilty of the sins, then feel free to tell FSF about it.

To loosely quote MacBreak Weekly panel, Apple and Steve Jobs would be worse than Microsoft if they had the monopoly.

Well, I definitely need to get some sleep, no wonder this turns into a rant.

P.S. EFF – I just feel like saying it at this moment.