Infection messages?

R

Robin Bignall

On the subject of these messages:

infection:documents and settings\robin bignall\cookies\index.dat could
not be removed. file is no longer existent.

appearing before the XP login screen, I have discovered how to stop
them occurring. That is to turn off the real-time background
protection in A-squared.

I have no idea what is happening, but I assume something in A-squared
is building a table (the number of messages I see seems to be directly
proportional to the length of time the system is powered up) and then
some component of XP, or, more likely, Kaspersky 2010, is running
through this table generating these messages. Either some weird
interaction or bug in either/both.

The real-time guard of SAS works perfectly (or, at least, these
messages do not appear when it's running).

Merry Christmas or its equivalent to all.
 
D

Daave

Robin said:
On the subject of these messages:

infection:documents and settings\robin bignall\cookies\index.dat could
not be removed. file is no longer existent.

appearing before the XP login screen, I have discovered how to stop
them occurring. That is to turn off the real-time background
protection in A-squared.

I have no idea what is happening, but I assume something in A-squared
is building a table (the number of messages I see seems to be directly
proportional to the length of time the system is powered up) and then
some component of XP, or, more likely, Kaspersky 2010, is running
through this table generating these messages. Either some weird
interaction or bug in either/both.

The real-time guard of SAS works perfectly (or, at least, these
messages do not appear when it's running).

Merry Christmas or its equivalent to all.

Thanks for sharing the cause of the problem.

You are probably aware that it is not recommended to run two or more
real-time antispyware (or antivirus) programs simultaneously. I wonder
if you disabled SAS (or Kaspersky 2010) completely but keep A-Squared
with its real-time protection on, what the outcome would be.

Merry Christmas to you, too, Robin!
 
D

David H. Lipman

From: "Robin Bignall" <[email protected]>

| On the subject of these messages:

| infection:documents and settings\robin bignall\cookies\index.dat could
| not be removed. file is no longer existent.

| appearing before the XP login screen, I have discovered how to stop
| them occurring. That is to turn off the real-time background
| protection in A-squared.

| I have no idea what is happening, but I assume something in A-squared
| is building a table (the number of messages I see seems to be directly
| proportional to the length of time the system is powered up) and then
| some component of XP, or, more likely, Kaspersky 2010, is running
| through this table generating these messages. Either some weird
| interaction or bug in either/both.

| The real-time guard of SAS works perfectly (or, at least, these
| messages do not appear when it's running).

| Merry Christmas or its equivalent to all.
| --
| Robin
| (BrE)
| Herts, England

Thanx for the update Robin!
 
A

Andy Medina

Robin Bignall said:
On the subject of these messages:

infection:documents and settings\robin bignall\cookies\index.dat could
not be removed. file is no longer existent.

appearing before the XP login screen, I have discovered how to stop
them occurring. That is to turn off the real-time background
protection in A-squared.

This shows the importance of turning off or uninstalling various programs
REGARDLESS of whether one believes it can not be the culprit.
Troubleshooting any problem demands it. Reminds me of the times years ago
(in the DOS and early Windows days) when *mouse drivers* would interfere
with printing. Many a tech would be caught red-faced because they just could
not believe a mouse driver would interfere with printing. Yet turn off or
uninstall the mouse driver and the printing problem would disappear.
Reinstall or turn the driver back on, and the printing problem would
resurface. Any tech worth his salt will seek to *prove* a
program/driver/utility is not the culprit, rather than go with the *belief*
it can not be the culprit. I have even had people complain about turning off
screen savers while troubleshooting a problem. Geeeeeez, it's not like I
want them to turn it off forever, unless it is causing problems. Yes, even
screen savers have been found to cause problems.
 
R

Robin Bignall

Thanks for sharing the cause of the problem.

You are probably aware that it is not recommended to run two or more
real-time antispyware (or antivirus) programs simultaneously. I wonder
if you disabled SAS (or Kaspersky 2010) completely but keep A-Squared
with its real-time protection on, what the outcome would be.
I was aware of the problem running two antivirus programs
simultaneously, but didn't appreciate that it applied to malware too.
Having just installed Kaspersky 9.0.0.736 I'm reluctant to uninstall
it. I'll switch Asquared on again and see if the problem still
exists. SAS does not seem to affect these messages.
 
F

FromTheRafters

Robin Bignall said:
I was aware of the problem running two antivirus programs
simultaneously, but didn't appreciate that it applied to malware too.
Having just installed Kaspersky 9.0.0.736 I'm reluctant to uninstall
it. I'll switch Asquared on again and see if the problem still
exists. SAS does not seem to affect these messages.

It could even be affected by the order in which the suspects get loaded
into memory. It kinda reminds me of the "Two Black Crows" routine about
the race '...if I get there first, I'll draw a line in the dirt - if you
get there first, you rub it out..'. Computer programs will actually try
to do this when told to.
 
R

RJK

Andy Medina said:
This shows the importance of turning off or uninstalling various programs
REGARDLESS of whether one believes it can not be the culprit.
Troubleshooting any problem demands it. Reminds me of the times years ago
(in the DOS and early Windows days) when *mouse drivers* would interfere
with printing. Many a tech would be caught red-faced because they just
could not believe a mouse driver would interfere with printing. Yet turn
off or uninstall the mouse driver and the printing problem would
disappear. Reinstall or turn the driver back on, and the printing problem
would resurface. Any tech worth his salt will seek to *prove* a
program/driver/utility is not the culprit, rather than go with the
*belief* it can not be the culprit. I have even had people complain about
turning off screen savers while troubleshooting a problem. Geeeeeez, it's
not like I want them to turn it off forever, unless it is causing
problems. Yes, even screen savers have been found to cause problems.

Agreed, ...the "bells and whistles" BLOATWARE that always seems to accompany
new hardware, including mice - is often a recipe for disaster, i.e. it's
often poorly written application software that accompanies hardware which
causes problems, or, as you said, the mouse driver itseld. For years I've
let Windows use it's own driver !
Unless Winodws can't find a "universal" driver (for want of a better word)
then I think it best to chuck that CD that came with a piece of hardware -
into the rubbish bin !!
Also, too many people blindly install ALL the junk on the CD instead of just
the driver !! ...then they wonder why their filetype associations have all
changed !!!!

regards, Richard
 
R

Robin Bignall

It could even be affected by the order in which the suspects get loaded
into memory.

Does a user have any control over that?
It kinda reminds me of the "Two Black Crows" routine about
the race '...if I get there first, I'll draw a line in the dirt - if you
get there first, you rub it out..'. Computer programs will actually try
to do this when told to.
I can confirm that the messages come back when A-squared's background
guard is activated.
 
F

FromTheRafters

Robin Bignall said:
[...]
It could even be affected by the order in which the suspects get
loaded
into memory.
Does a user have any control over that?

Not really, that would be a memory management thing. If two programs had
the task of deleting index.dat, and one of them did it by "delete file"
and the other by "if file exists, delete file" the first one *first* and
the second one *second* would not create an error message for display.
If the sequence were reversed, the later "delete file" would error
because no check was made for the file's existence beforehand and it
*had* been deleted already. It creates a race condition of sorts, and
can account for intermittent symptoms.
I can confirm that the messages come back when A-squared's background
guard is activated.

It seems that you have narrowed it down to A-Squared being what is
responsible for the messages. As to why it is doing so, who knows? I had
thought maybe some other antispy component was deleting the file
(perhaps upon exiting the browser?), and that was not expected by the
programmers of the program (A-Squared?) that subsequently tried
(numerous times?) to delete the same file.

Does A-Squared log those events as well as display the messages (the
wording should be essentially the same)?
 
R

Robin Bignall

Robin Bignall said:
[...]
It could even be affected by the order in which the suspects get
loaded
into memory.
Does a user have any control over that?

Not really, that would be a memory management thing. If two programs had
the task of deleting index.dat, and one of them did it by "delete file"
and the other by "if file exists, delete file" the first one *first* and
the second one *second* would not create an error message for display.
If the sequence were reversed, the later "delete file" would error
because no check was made for the file's existence beforehand and it
*had* been deleted already. It creates a race condition of sorts, and
can account for intermittent symptoms.
I can confirm that the messages come back when A-squared's background
guard is activated.

It seems that you have narrowed it down to A-Squared being what is
responsible for the messages. As to why it is doing so, who knows? I had
thought maybe some other antispy component was deleting the file
(perhaps upon exiting the browser?), and that was not expected by the
programmers of the program (A-Squared?) that subsequently tried
(numerous times?) to delete the same file.

Does A-Squared log those events as well as display the messages (the
wording should be essentially the same)?
I don't know. I've stopped using A-Squared and have raised this item
on their web forum.
 
B

Buffalo

Robin Bignall wrote:
[snipped]
I don't know. I've stopped using A-Squared and have raised this item
on their web forum.
If you get an answer from them, let us know.
At least you made a lot of progress.
Buffalo
 
D

David H. Lipman

From: "Robin Bignall" <[email protected]>

| I don't know. I've stopped using A-Squared and have raised this item
| on their web forum.
| --
| Robin
| (BrE)
| Herts, England

Did 'ShadowPuterDude' reply/respond ?

If not, please send me an email of the posted URL and I will have him give your A-Squared
thread due attention.
 
B

Buffalo

Robin Bignall wrote:
[snip]
I've stopped using A-Squared and have raised this item
on their web forum.
Is it possible that A-Squared is causing the problem and another program is
reacting to it?
IOW, perhaps A-squared is not itself bringing up the boxes, but another
program inter-reacting with it.
Just thinking out loud. :)
Buffalo
PS: Long thread and easy to miss something.
 
R

Robin Bignall

From: "Robin Bignall" <[email protected]>

| I don't know. I've stopped using A-Squared and have raised this item
| on their web forum.
| --
| Robin
| (BrE)
| Herts, England

Did 'ShadowPuterDude' reply/respond ?

If not, please send me an email of the posted URL and I will have him give your A-Squared
thread due attention.

http://support.emsisoft.com/topic/1105-infection-message-at-xp-logon/page__gopid__5462&

That gets to my latest post on the group, but it won't help much as
I'm not going to go through the folderol they're suggesting: I've
simply uninstalled A-Squared.
 
B

Buffalo

B

Buffalo

Buffalo said:
Robin Bignall wrote:
[snip]>http://support.emsisoft.com/topic/1105-infection-message-at-xp-logon/page__gopid__5462&
That gets to my latest post on the group, but it won't help much as
I'm not going to go through the folderol they're suggesting: I've
simply uninstalled A-Squared.

Well maybe A-Squared will stop their 'defensive' attitude and try to
improve their product.
I thought they responded to you like you were a beginning computer
user. Have a Happy New Year,
Buffalo

PS: And a female blonde to boot!!
Buffalo :)
 
T

The Real Truth MVP

I've read your posts there and the replies. No matter how many times you
tell them they will not see past an infection. You are right to just
uninstall it but I would send an email to Christian Mairoll the company CEO
since this is not a malware issue but a software programming issue. Don't
waste your time again starting from scratch.


--
The Real Truth http://pcbutts1-therealtruth.blogspot.com/
*WARNING* Do NOT follow any advice given by the people listed below.
They do NOT have the expertise or knowledge to fix your issue. Do not waste
your time.
David H Lipman, Malke, PA Bear, Beauregard T. Shagnasty, Leythos.
 
B

Buffalo

The said:
I've read your posts there and the replies. No matter how many times
you tell them they will not see past an infection. You are right to
just uninstall it but I would send an email to Christian Mairoll the
company CEO since this is not a malware issue but a software
programming issue. Don't waste your time again starting from scratch.
[snip]
That actually makes a lot of sense.
Wow, congratulations, Real Truth MVP.
Buffalo
 

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