After Hard Drive Wipe and Reload

One of the things I've noticed is that when you are in a limited user account, even when using Drop My Rights, some links will not work at places like ebay. You need to be in your Owner or Administrator account, and if using Firefox and you have NoScript, all options for allowing cookies in NoScript for that site need to be enabled or temporarily enabled.

That's something I was going to ask you about, and even last night when she was on Ebay, I opened up IE and then Chrome browsers, to the same page, and they both were able to get the info she was looking for. I then looked at No Script, to see what I could enable temporary. My problem with that is I can not figure out what those names are on that list. Other that say like Ebay, the other stuff means nothing to me. How does one know what to allow out of those strange names?

From what I see, just the ones with the name ebay attached to them. Stuff like ad cookies are usually self-evident and not needed. Anything with the name google is not needed. Internet explorer works the best for me on ebay.

Repa,

I'm going to try #1 in your above list now. You didn't say, but, I'm assuming I need to do this in the Owner account. Let me know if that is correct.

Also, I hope I can try the drop my rights soon. I'll probably need your help. Can I count on you?


EDIT at 9:05 PM CST: I just finished "Overwrite events as needed", and it was already checked. After I clicked Actions, on mine there was no "Preferences", so I clicked"Properties" on mine, and found it there. WHEW!

Yes to both questions.

This computer must be in the fast user switching mode, because I've switched from one account to the other, temporarily, before, but, do it very rarely. Do I need to try disabling that right away, or wait to see if it ever freezes again?

Since the option I told you to use in instruction 1 was already selected, try the 2nd instruction and see if your problem re-occurs or not.

Repa,
1) I just disabled Fast Switching. Only had to uncheck the box one time, and not in each account individually. I wanted to post this first, before I try to switch accounts, after the disable. You mentioned this could cause the computer to crash, that disturbs me.

2) Once again last nite, when trying to log into limited account, got the window saying that "Resources are too low to log in, tell your Administrator". I had to hold in On button to turn computer off again. Do you think this thing will ever operate correctly?

I'll report back later. Thanks.

Edit: This edit is about 10 minutes since I posted above. There is only one way to switch users, and that is to log out completely. After click the log out in Start menu you get a window saying "Are you sure you want to log off?". After disabling the fast switch, the "Switching Users" option is not even available. If I can ever get drop my rights implememted fast switching option is not even an issue any more, Correct?

1) Was that before or after disabling fast switching? Did you try bringing up the Task Manager like I suggested in a previous post and stopping explorer.exe? In the post above, the low resource message was before disabling Fast Switching. But, last nite, it happened again, after disabling Fast Switching. And, there's no way to open Task Manager when computer freezes, or when the Insufficient Resources to log on thing happens.
I don't know if this has anything to do with the "Insufficient Resources to log on" message, but, I've noticed the computer has been sitting idle for 6-8 hours. But, in the mode you told me to put it in when the "Stand By" mode stopped working. You know, the "Turn of monitor, and Hard disks after several minutes. FYI, the Stand by mode worked again for a very short time after the Wipe & Reload.

2) It won't do any good to stop explorer.exe now, with the computer working will it? I assume that would have to be done at the time of the problem?

3) After we talked on the phone that Friday, fixing the printer, I was trying to take a rest from all this for a while before trying to install Drop my rights, but, this other stuff keeps coming up that we have to deal with. I hope to be able to try getting Drop my rights set soon.

4) I'll try logging into all accounts, going from one to the other, several times during the day, to see if anything goes wrong, and then I'll post any results.

Note: if your RAM size is other than 1GB, let me know. The numbers I gave you above are based on that RAM size. I'm supposed to have 1GB of RAM, but, every time I check it to be sure of what I have, it now says 0.99GB of RAM. Will your instructions still work or not?

Okay, got the paging file changed. I made a couple of screen shots for you to look at. I don't know if they will be of any value or not. I think before I changed over to Custom size, I think the Initial size (MB) number was about 1522. The second shot, of course, was when I backing out of the screens, and clicking "OK". I thought the screen shots might help you, i don't know.

Try that for a while and see if your problem goes away. If it comes back, we can try increasing the size some more.

I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks

Repa,

I thought the problem was fixed, but, had another Insufficient Resources to log on message. But, the only good thing was that I was able to shut the computer down using your keyboard method. I didn't expect it to work, but, I keep clicking those keys and it finally shut it off.

Now what?

1. Click My Computer > Properties > Advanced tab.
2. Under Performance, click the Settings button.
3. On the window that appears, click the Advanced Tab, and under Virtual Memory click the Change button.
4. In the window that appears, select "No Paging File:"
8. Click the Set button. Your computer will tell you that you need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect. Click Ok, Ok, Ok to back out of the screens you see.
9. When the System Properties window disappears after the last click Ok, you will get another message telling you to restart your computer. Click Ok to restart.

10. Defrag your hard drive. When done,

11. Click My Computer > Properties > Advanced tab.
12. Under Performance, click the Settings button.
13. On the window that appears, click the Advanced Tab, and under Virtual Memory click the Change button.
14. In the window that appears, select "Custom Size:"
15. In the text box beside Initial Size (MB): type 4095
16. In the text box beside Maximum size (MB): type 4095
17. Click the Set button. Your computer will tell you that you need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect. Click Ok, Ok, Ok to back out of the screens you see.
18. When the System Properties window disappears after the last click Ok, you will get another message telling you to restart your computer. Click Ok to restart.

If this doesn’t do it, we’re about out of options. I would next suspect possible problems with your RAM since I’ve never seen it register as .99GB before.

If this doesn’t do it, we’re about out of options. I would next suspect possible problems with your RAM since I’ve never seen it register as .99GB before. What does this mean, that computer will eventually die? Or, computer will still work, and I'll have to contend with the Insufficient Resources to log on messages?

I'll do this tomorrow.

No, your computer should still work. You can lose some portions of RAM without killing your computer, it just doesn't work as well. And, your RAM may be ok, I've just never seen it at .99GB before. If things get bad, you can always replace the RAM. There are programs you can run to check your RAM if we get to that point in the future.

If this is still happening when you log off one account and log on to another, be sure you exit any programs and browsers you have running that you initiated before you log off.

I thought we did the below instructions some time ago, but you could check anyway after settig the new paging file sizes in my previous post to see if you have the new values specified in the registry keys below:

1. Set a new restore point.

2. Click "Start" followed by "Run." Type "regedit" in the Open field and click "OK." This opens the Windows Registry Editor.

3. Click the + sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the Windows Registry Editor, and then drill down to System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management. Right-click "ClearPageFileAtShutdown" under Name in the right pane. If the value is not zero (0), select "Modify." Put a zero 0 in the Value Data box and click "OK."

4. Drill down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control. Right-click on "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" and select "Modify." Enter 4000 in the Value Data box and click "OK."

5. Click the + sign next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER and drill down to Control Panel\Desktop. Make the following changes to the keys in the right pane of the window:

* Right-click the "AutoEndTasks" registry key. Select "Modify," enter 1 in the Value Data box and click "OK."
* Right-click the "HangAppTime" registry key, select "Modify," enter 4000 in the Value Data box and click "OK."
* Right-click the "WaitToKillAppTimeout" registry key. Select "Modify," enter 4000 in the Value Data box and click "OK."

6. Close the registry edit window

If the problem persists, take a screen shot of the task manager before you log off and post it. You may have to make 2 or more screen shots to get everything. Usually this is caused by a program that is still running when you log off and won't shut down. The above registry settings are supposed to help with that, but....

Repa,

OKay, got your next to last instructions done.

I did the 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, (what happened to 5, 6, 7?), Defragged, then did 10-18. After #18, i did not get a "ReStart" window, as I did in the first part, so after backing out with the "OK's", I then ReStarted the computer myself. Was that alright to do that, will it have the same effect?

Yea, that's fine. After using custom settings once and then changing the values, I think you may not get that restart message. Make sure "Custom Size" is selected and the values are 4095 for the Initial/Maximum values and everything will be fine. Check those registry values and then let her run and see if over the next few days that problem is gone.

I'll go on and Check those registry values and see what happens.

1) I noticed in SpywareBlaster when doing updates that it lists IE, and FF browsers, but not Chrome. Does that mean I shouldn't use the Chrome browser because it is not protected?


Edit: 2) Just finished the regedit. You didn't mention "ReStart", I was thinking a restart was required?

3) Only had to change the last 2. HungApptime was 2000, and "WaitToKillAppTimeout" was 5000.
Whoops, also had to change #4, "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" on your instruction list from 5000 to 4000.

Ok, let her run and see what happens. Remember to close any browsers and applications you have opened before logging off. If you should experience the problem again, get back on and run awhile, open whatever you typically have open in the way of browsers and applications, do whatever you do for a while and then go away and let it sit there for a while. When you come back, do screen shots of the Task Manager (more than one shot if necessary so all processes are captured in the images), and post them here so I can see what is running.

Spywareblaster and Spybot only work passively with IE and Firefox to my knowledge. They set kill bits in the registry to:

• Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware and other potentially unwanted programs.
• Block spying / tracking via cookies.
• Restrict the actions of potentially unwanted or dangerous web sites.

These "kill bit" registry entries are set for the spyware ActiveX CLSIDs (unqiue IDs that identify an ActiveX control). When a kill bit is set for a CLSID, the ActiveX control that uses that CLSID cannot install itself via your browser, nor can it run if it already installed.

Your choice as to whether to use Chrome or not. It is supposed to be one of the safest, if not the safest browser out there. You can check out a review on it from PCWorld here:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/158400/how_secure_is_google_chrome.html

Repa,
I received the following in the December Malwarebytes Newsletter.

Safety Tip 1: Update your Adobe Reader software and JRE (Java Runtime Environment) software today! Our research team has found the usage of exploit malware has increased significantly and attacks vulnerabilities in your out of date applications. Thus, it is critical to update your applications as these exploits target legitimate websites as well as mainstream ad servers.

Did you see this, and what do you say about it?