Windows Guru Needed!

[Davey Jones]

Please help, if you can.

We have this thing called "Webcoolsearch" on our 'puter that cannot be
reckoned with! We are unable to install any windows updates, and this thing
is impervious to Nortons antivirus.

Let me ask this: I am thinking of wiping the hard drive clean, and buying
another copy of some type of windows and installing that, just to be rid of
our problems. Is it possible to completely wipe the drive clean and start
over? I know it is on my Mac, but I don't know about this, my fiancés
machine we both regret buying now.

Thanks a TON!

Dave

Please reply to (e-mail address removed)

 

[Patti MacLeod]

Hi Davey Jones,

Have you tried d/loading and running CWShredder (aka, Cool Web Shredder) to
see if that solves the "Webcoolsearch" (which I'm thinking might be
"CoolWebSearch") problem? If not, it is available for d/load from here:
http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/
CoolWebSearch is a nasty internet parasite with many variations.

If it comes to it, yes it is possible to wipe the drive clean and start
over. Why are you thinking of buying another copy of some type of windows?
Do you not have the XP install CD, or is it that you and your fianceé would
prefer a different version of Windows?


Regards,

 

[Davey Jones]

First off, thanks for the info! I don't know yet if it's going to help, but
just replying is cool enough for us! Thanks!

No, we don't have any windows CDs that came with the 'puter. They told us
that because it was the last one on the shelf, they couldn't find anything.
Our mistake, I reckon. We did get a pretty good deal on it, at least for
that period of time. I'm going to go to that link you posted, and hopefully
everything will be more normal than it has been for over a year. Either way,
thanks for the effort!

Dave

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Well "They told us that because it was the last one on the shelf" takes the biscuit" LOL!

If your machine has an OEM version of Windows XP you may find the backup copy on your hard drive. Is your computer a brand name e.g. Dell?

--

~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[MAP]

-----Original Message-----
Please help, if you can.

We have this thing called "Webcoolsearch" on our 'puter that cannot be
reckoned with! We are unable to install any windows updates, and this thing
is impervious to Nortons antivirus.

Let me ask this: I am thinking of wiping the hard drive clean, and buying
another copy of some type of windows and installing that, just to be rid of
our problems. Is it possible to completely wipe the drive clean and start
over? I know it is on my Mac, but I don't know about this, my fiancés
machine we both regret buying now.

Thanks a TON!

Dave

Please reply to (e-mail address removed)

--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
http://www.geocities.com/rogue_2k/CHeston.html


.

I see that Patti has suggested CWS, once you rid yourself
of coolwebsearch download and update spywareblaster it
can "prevent" many variants of coolweb from even
installing,This is a must have program.

Spybot "Search and Destroy"
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download

Spywareblaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbdownload.html

Spywareguard
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html

Ad-aware
http://www.lavasoft.de/

CWShedder,Hijackthis,BHO Demon
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
Hijackthis tutorial
www.aumha.org/a/hjttutor.php

winpatrol
http://www.winpatrol.com/

CWShredder (Line 313) Home page lock (Line 63)
Hijack this (Line 116)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Useful links about spyware.

http://forums.spywareinfo.com/

http://www.pestpatrol.com/PestInfo/

http://www.aumha.org/a/hjttutor.htm

www.spychecker.com/home.html

A list of "bogus" anti-spyware tools
http://pcpitstop.ibforums.com/axslinger/helpfiles/bogus.ht
m

 

[Guest]

That also means that you probably have a pirated version
of Windows - that could be the reason you cannot load
updates.

-----Original Message-----
Well "They told us that because it was the last one on

the shelf" takes the biscuit" LOL!

If your machine has an OEM version of Windows XP you may

find the backup copy on your hard drive. Is your computer
a brand name e.g. Dell?

 

[Patti MacLeod]

You're welcome for the info!

I'm hoping that running CWShredder and giving a try to SpywareBlaster, as
MAP suggested, has the computer running more normal for a while yet to come.


Regards,

 

[Davey Jones]

I bought the HP Pavilion mx75 at Sam's Club, and seriously, it was the last
one, and it was on the shelve, so I'm guessing that one of the workers took
the WXP disc home, if their even was one. The manager said we didn't need
the hard copies of XP because of the new "restore" feature. Whatever.

I installed the CWShredder and the 'puter's now working just fine, except
that I can't install the downloaded Service Pack 1, which is odd because I
did download and install 30 other updates (55.2 MB, 30+ hours to install!)
with no problems. It tells me "Setup could not verify the integrity of the
file Update.inf. Make sure the Cryptographic service is running on this
computer." I'll try and figure that one out, but in the meantime many thanks
to you all for your help and indispensable links! I wish I had come here
sooner.

Davey

 

[Patti MacLeod]

I'm glad to hear that CWShredder helped to get the computer working just
fine

It may be that the HP Pavilions that ship with XP have a recovery drive
image stored on a hidden partition on the hard drive instead of having
Recovery or Restore disks.

As for the Cryptographic service error, that is a common one that is
encountered when attempting to install SP1. Have a look here:
http://www.updatexp.com/cryptographic-service.html
Hopefully one of the remedies provided in that link will help solve that
problem.


Regards,

 

[Davey Jones]

Thanks bunches, Patti!

I finally got to download and install every last critical update, and all's
well. The PC now seems a little slower, but I imagine it'll be a tad quicker
after I defrag.

Thanks again!
Davey

 

[Patti MacLeod]

You're very welcome!!

Don't forget to run Error Checking (Scandisk) before Defrag ;-)


Regards,

 

[Davey Jones]

One last thing, or two....

I have SpyBot Search and Destroy, have had it for a few months, and while I
like it, it's always been unable to quarantine something on my computer
called HuntBar. I have tried everything to get rid of that, but much like
CoolWebSearch, HuntBar is impervious to any of my efforts! Is this HuntBar a
problem much like CWS? Is there a HuntBar Shredder? I'll Google that in a
moment, but as far as I can tell, that's my last problem.

Thanks again!!
Dave

 

[Patti MacLeod]

You're welcome, again!

Have a look here for info regarding HuntBar:
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/HuntBar.html


Regards,

 

[Davey Jones]

My neighbor has a huge problem with his 'puter, now. He also has XP, on a 3
month old computer, and when he starts it out, it's just "spinning," not
doing anything, hourglass city! He has the XP disc, so my final question,
hopefully, is how does he boot up his 'puter using that XP disc?

Thanks!

 

[Patti MacLeod]

He'll have to enter the BIOS Setup and ensure that CDROM is the first boot
device listed in the boot device order. When he boots his computer with the
install CD in the drive, there should be a message that appears shortly
after powering up/restarting that will say something like "Press any key to
boot from CD"....at this point, he has a few seconds to press any key.


Regards,

 

[Davey Jones]

I think he may have fried this hard drive, because these problems all
occurred after some storms last weekend, and not-so-coincidentally, 3
light-bulbs in the same room all died at the same time. Maybe his
surge-suppressor failed him, I don't know. His PC is acting similarly slow
like my Mac did when I blew the HD a few months back. Whatever it is, his
father in-law will figure it out for him tomorrow because as of now, he
can't find the XP CD.

I'm going to save this message for future reference, and as always, Ms.
MacLeod.... Thanks a TON, again!! You're my guru.

Dave

 

[Patti MacLeod]

He may also have fried the motherboard or some of its components, too.

Glad to have been able to assist you, Dave And don't hesitate to post
back to the newsgroups here if you have any further problems with or
questions about XP.


Regards,