IT Queries: Computer problems answered

My anti virus program says it’s detected a Trojan on my work computer, and then requested delete, but the computer is still behaving strangely and the warning keeps happening. Is there another program that may help?

Simply deleting the Trojan probably won’t work. The problem with these programs is they are designed to hide in system files and reappear at the first opportunity.

Fixing a Trojan infection can be a very difficult process. The first step is to backup your data. It may be necessary to wipe your computer and reinstall everything.

Once you’ve backed up all your data, download as many spyware removal tools as possible to remove the trojan. We’d suggest starting with Malware Bytes, Spybot and Adaware.

A good anti-virus is also important. We’d recommend installing one of the free virus protection tools which we discuss at Which Free Anti-Virus is Best.

Each of these programs should be installed and their update routines run so they are fully up to date. DO NOT SCAN YOUR COMPUTER OR TRY TO REMOVE THE TROJAN YET.

Shutdown your computer and restart in Safe Mode. This will start the computer with the basic settings and, hopefully, without the Trojan starting, this is essential if you want to remove the trojan from your system.

With the computer running in Safe Mode, run all the anti virus and anti spyware programs you previously installed. Do one at a time and be aware this will take many hours.

This will clear all but the worst Trojan, virus or spyware infections, but what you should be aware of is modern malare is very good at hiding itself and if the problem persists you either have to call a technician or wipe the computer. This may be necessary to remove the Trojan from your computer

After any spyware or Trojan infection, you should be aware that any online services you’ve accessed might be compromised. We highly recommend you change all banking and other sensitive passwords and monitor your financial statements closely after finding an infection.

Safe mode is Windows with the bare minimum features. It is used for troubleshooting or to prevent viruses or troublesome programs starting with the computer.

In safe Mode you can’t access the Internet, hear any sound and the colours look dreadful.

To get into Windows safe mode you hold down the F8 starts. Timing is important and it can take a few attempts to get it right.

If you hold the key down too early you may get a key stuck error from the BIOS. Hold the key down too late then Windows will start normally.

In Windows XP and Vista you will get a menu. Normally you should select “Start Computer in Safe Mode”.

Once in Safe Mode you can navigate, remove files and uninstall programs. Scanning for viruses, running scandisk or defragmenting are common reasons for starting in Safe Mode as they won’t be distracted by other programs or locked files.

Running safe mode is not something you should do every day, but it is a useful tool when faced with a troublesome computer. Because it starts only the functions that Windows needs, it isn’t suitable for day-to-day use as you can’t use printers, CD’s or the Internet.

If your computer regularly starts in Safe Mode then you should back up your data and call a technician.

Hi,
I am running the latest version of Mozilla Firefox(it’s great). But after the latest update the toolbar link to Thunderbird (Email) has vanished.
Any thoughts about why and can it be reinstated?

It sounds like a recent upgrade has lost your email toolbar.

One of the features with Mozilla is the sheer number of add ins available for it. The add in you need is the Thunderbird Biff addin. There’s a lot of other addins you can install to make Firefox easier to use. We’d encourage exploring the packages available.

I am using Windows xp Home and I have only just started to get the following problem.
Opening A new window it appears behind existing open windows. I have to minimize all windows to see the new opened window
I have tried Microsoft article 256986 but this did not help.

The Microsoft Knowledge Base article to use is 886217.

This article describes how to change the registry settings. We do not recommend this for anyone except experienced technicians.

Fortunately a feature to fix this is included in TweakUI, part of the Microsoft Power Toys suite of tools. We’d recommend downloading and installing TweakUI.

To use it once you’ve installed it, click Start, go to All Programs, select Powertoys for Windows XP, and click Tweak UI.

Once Tweak UI opens, go down the list on the left hand side and click the “+” square next to General, and then click Focus.

Clear the Prevent applications from stealing focus check box, and then click OK.

TweakUI is a great tool, but it’s capable of great mischief. If you choose to explore all the features available, make sure you back up your system before playing with it.

I have a dial-up connection that often disconnects. It happens more frequently during business hours and evenings.

Using Internet Explorer repair tool seems to cure the problem for a while, but it always returns after visiting several sites.

It’s unlikely websites are causing your dial up settings to changed unless you are downloading some very devious malware.

A more likely culprit is your dial up networking settings are set to too short a time out. This means if the modem or computer doesn’t detect any activity for a certain amount of time, then it disconnects.

Microsoft have instructions on changing dial up networking settings on their website. You need to change the Idle time before hanging up setting.

On that page, Microsoft also mention you might be disconnected before the time is up by the server. It is quite possible your ISP is disconnecting due to higher traffic loads in the evening.

Another common problem we see is the email client might be set to disconnect after sending email. This can be changed in the email program by setting the connection to use the computer’s network connection rather than the email program trying to start or close the connection.

Generally we find for most users that dial up connections are now more expensive and troublesome that broadband. It might be worth moving over to broadband.

I Bought a brand new Lenovo laptop with Vista Home Premium installed. Kept disconnecting me from my dialup internet after a few minutes. My Internet provider had me try a few things that didn’t work eg. altering modem speed. They finally admitted they were’nt up to speed with Vista.

Contacted Lenovo, who were very good. Had me return machine to them. They checked it-nothing wrong. Back to me. Still the same problem.Back to them,fully checked and nothing found wrong. Back to me again, still the same problem.

I then took the machineback to where I purchased it and got my money back.

My daughter gave me her old laptop, which the grandkids were playing games on, and said to try it. It has an early version of the system before(XP?) Vista. It works perfectly – no cut offs.

What’s the problem?

I’m frightened to buy a new computer now because of this problem.

The first rule of computing is not to let them intimidate you. Computer are tools, just like a coffee machine or power drill. Sometimes you get a dud one.

In this case, it sounds like there was either a defective modem or some software problem.

When you have a new operating system like Microsoft Vista, it makes finding those problems harder. It also means getting help becomes more difficult. You found this with your ISP.

This is why we recommend avoiding a new operating system for at least six months after its release. That way we get to see the bugs and find ways around common problems.

Technology’s no different to any other product, sometimes it doesn’t work. Don’t be worried about buying a computer in future.

I have had some trouble with my computer, It seemed to be some type of virus, which has left me limted use of my computer. The CD ROM will not work, so I cannot reload my windows, when I try to open word, excel etc, it opens but windows installer come up saying installing excel feature,and asked me to insert xp disk,which I can\’t because CD Rom not working, I also have external drive but also not work now,Also have trouble with upgrades from Microsoft.

It doesn’t sound like a virus but a problem with the motherboard drivers. Drivers are the software that translates commands from Windows to the hardware. In this case it sounds like your USB and IDE drivers have a problem.

It’s always worthwhile checking for a virus. The Trend Micro Housecall is a good online tool.

If you find the housecall doesn’t work, then downloading and installing the Windows Scripting Host might resolve both this and your Windows Update problem.

There are two other Windows Update problems we’ve addressed previously and it may be worth checking these.

The “insert disk” message is an irritating problem that plagues Microsoft Office users. The simplest solution is to fix the CD problem so you can insert the installation disk to keep the system happy.

You might find the Local Installation Source Tool might help, but our experience is that easier to get the disk.

Overall, it sounds like you need a computer tech to have a look at your system as there are a number of things going wrong with your system.

I have tried to uninstall Incredmail. It disappears for a few days and a message comes back complete incredimail installation, I then press ok. A message appears that an icon will be placed on your desktop to able you install the program at alater time.Could you please advise me how to remove this reminder, as it does not show that it is still installed on program list.

Incredimail can be a very irritating program to get rid of and this is one reason we don’t like it. The other is we find cute images and bouncing emoticons incredibly irritating in our emails.

The instructions posted at Incredimail’s website make it appear easy and we’d recommend following these instructions first.

If the icon still doesn’t go away, right click on the icon and select Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and look in the Target box. This will tell you the folder where the Incredmail installation files are on the computer.

Open My Computer go to the location and delete the folder listed in target box. Typically this is a folder called IMInstall. Then delete the desktop icon.

This should get rid of the problem. However it is possible you might get harmless but irritating error messages on starting.

If that’s the case, some registry editing is needed. We don’t recommend users making changes to the system files so we’d strongly recommend you seek the services of a qualified computer tech.

“In my computer when I double click on any of the drives I am getting the “open with” option to “choose the program you want to use to open this file:” & when I right click on the Drives I am getting “Auto” as  first option instead of  “open” what should I do?”

It sound like the drives has some files that Windows wants to run when it first looks at the drive.

The quickest way to fix this is to move as many files as possible into folders. This way Windows won’t assume you want that drive to run programs or videos. It’s good computer practice to keep what we call the root directory free of junk for this reason.

One of the most common culprits for this is an autorun.inf sitting in your root directory. Make sure you move any files that finish in .inf into another folder.

If your “c” drive that’s doing this then be very careful about moving files out of the root directory. It might be best to get a tech who knows which files are important to the Windows system.

Hi! I am a senior, fairly new to the computer game, and purchased an ex-govt. pc equipped with msn email site, and was going well, then..started having trouble responding. I’ve taken it back, and back and now they have installed FIREFOX which i’m not happy with. How can I get MSN back. Further, the pc is not connecting wth printer. All quite boring and problematic, and wasting time!

Your experience is why we tend to steer people away from second hand computers. These problems are pretty typical of what we see when people buy old systems. We recommend buying a cheap new system rather than wasting time with second hand kit.

To get MSN back, it’s best to visit the MSN website and download the latest version. Make sure your computer meets the minimum system requirements for MSN Explorer on that page.

We’ve discussed a problem previously with MSN Explorer and Internet Explorer 7 which stops MSN responding, you can find the fix here.