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Try Code Ranch – Java newbies are always welcome there and many of the moderators are authors of various books on Java. In addition, there are quite often book giveaways where the authors of nooks are available to answer question. http://www.coderanch.com/forums Disclaimer: I am a moderator at Code Ranch.

The fact that your a member here is good enough for me, don’t care if you are a mod. I was wondering what forum to post under though. My first question involves adding security to a Project I’ll use to manage finances. Primarily I’m looking to securely store and read config files and a checkbook type file. I’ve taken a year of class on Java programming and know a bit but I’ve never tried anything like this.

Didn’t get over there nearly as soon as I wanted but I did fix the problem. McAfee somehow changed a registry entry related to Extensible Authentication Protocol service (or didn’t revert a change). I don’t remember the exact value off hand (I saved it to a txt file but left that file on her computer). To fix the problem I did the following: I tried using whatinstartup and bluescreenview. I used whatinstartup to delete the two entries that weren’t disabled by CCLeaner and restarted, no luck. I then used bluescreenview and it said something about ndis. I couldn’t look into it more though due to not having networking. Unable to move on with those I moved on to the Clean Boot procedure. I already disabled all startup entries so I knew that wasn’t the problem (as I had figured already). I then went through the services and did the following: Disabled all Non-MS Services (Didn’t fix it) Disabled all MS-Services (Did fix it but no networking) Used the halves method to find the culprit within Microsoft Services (I left all non-MS services disabled to keep speeds up) Eventually I narrowed it down and found that it was the Extensible Authentication Protocol service. After that I had to search for quite a while before find a result that worked. I turned out to be a registry entry (again I don’t have the exact entry on me and don’t know when I will. The entry was something to the extent of Local Machine/CurrentControlSet/ndisio then I had to change a value from 3 to 2. The fix was actually for fixing a wireless card but I got lucky (I did notice most google results related to repairing EAP were about a broken wireless card which is why I checked).

I just read back through most of this thread and realize that people have completely forgotten what I posted about. For a quick recap I was looking to defrag an External hard drive. DrWho’s method would probably work well for an OS or small EHDD but for the largest thing I got I can’t exactly do a backup and restore. As for this Windows VS 3rd party debate it’s generally a matter of opinion though I do have my own. My own computer died do to a hardware problem (the HDD is still running perfectly fine by the way, it seems to be the processor or some other aspect of the motherboard/power system, in other words I’m stuck without it for quite a while). When I did have my computer I had a setup that worked well for me: Comodo Firewall (just the firewall), Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (just the free version I used a batch file/Windows Scheduler to scan and update), I use CCLeaner and sometimes PowerTools Lite. The only time I had any problems was when I neglected to do maintenance. So although it’s completely against what I created this thread for: CCleaner, MyDefrag and a AV/Firewall are the only things I think most Windows Computers need that isn’t already installed. Although I used my computer frequently MyDefrag was good enough for my internal HDD defragging. I’ve heard people swear by all sorts of others out there but for me it works. What it couldn’t do was defrag my External hard drive when I put too many files in one partition for it to handle. Also when I work on other peoples computers I set them up with the following (off the top of my head). I give them CCleaner and set it up (so it won’t erase anything they really want but will erase all the extra stuff they don’t and that Windows and 3rd party softwares that create the extra files often don’t. I also give them Avira which isn’t as powerful as my personal solution but is good enough for most people and is easy to use. I also give them Malwarebyte’s and tell them to use it at least once a month (though few actually do). I typically set them up with Firefox if they are using IE as I’ve not only heard how much better FF is than IE I’ve personally seen the difference. If they are using Opera or Chrome I usually leave that alone (I use Opera as an alt and haven’t gotten into Chrome but I’ve read enough about it to know that it’s not yet as vulnerable as even FF is (of course it’s also much newer and not yet as popular). As far as a defrag goes (which is the closest thing to being on topic here) I usually give them a sample of my MyDefrag setup. MyDefrag has a screensaver mode that will run a script (generally System Disk Daily which does numerous things to optimize an OS partition including leaving a little free space where Temp Data can go so as to avoid having it all over the place). Since a lot of people leave there computers running this method will automatically defrag there OS disk (which for the average user is there only HDD) whenever they leave their computer. Unless you are doing some serious computing or using a really old and/or slow drive (like this desktops secondary drive a 120GB SATA running at 1700 RPM) you don’t need to do anything fancy. The problem with normal schedules is that the computer may or may not be on to do it. I can at least guarantee the System disk will be maintained.

With the results of the BSOD investigation to hand, can you shed a little more light on what you mean by “she was actually trying to scan a document and was having disconnect issues but since normal troubleshooting wasn’t working…….”. Specifically, what disconnect issues?

Like other “Security Suites”, I have seen McAfee Security Suite do very strange things to networks and my guess is that your friend was having an issue with McAfee in the first instance. The McAfee Uninstaller should have taken care of it, but likewise, I’ve also seen this fail.

Turing to your sequence of events, my suspicion lies on the use of CCleaner before running the McAfee Uninstaller. McAfee is a complex product and a normal removal process would be the other way round: uninstall then use CCleaner. Depending on what you changed and/or removed with CCLeaner, the McAfee Uninstaller may have failed to execute correctly and possibly failed to completely remove the product, leaving a corrupt system in place.

Lots of “if’s, but’s and maybe’s” in all that, but depending on what damage may have been done, you could try a System Restore from Safe Mode.

Haven’t been back over there yet (as I said Wednesday night I’ll go) but what I meant was she wanted to print a document and her computer kept popping up a screen saying the printer was disconnected. I ran the basic troubleshoot options (disconnect/reconnect device, run troubleshooting tools, ensure printer was on…) When I didn’t have any luck I decided to run mbam and found the viruses and since McAfee wasn’t doing a good job I decided to try replacing it with Avira (which I’ve have good experiences with especially when coupled with monthly scans by mbam).

As for McAfee’s uninstall I ran CCleaner before running the uninstaller so it didn’t do anything at all to McAfee. The only time I ran it after was after the computer started BSODing.

Having said all that I figured I should add some more info:
First off in case anyone’s wondering I’m in EST (GMT-5)
Second off I believe her computer is Windows 7 Home Premium x64

I’ve rarely heard of a defragger damaging a drive and every time i have heard of such a thing it was because the persons drive was damaged, usually physically though occasionally just a screwed up MBR. That’s probably why RodeRunner suggested to do a chkdsk first so I made sure not to screw anything up.

First off I tried Auslogics and it did work though it seems to have left a little fragmentation I suspect that’s because it was trying to optimize. @Oskarius: I’m already using the newest version and it’s still not able to handle my disk. @bethel95: I’ve had this discussion before (most times on these forums) and the answer is simply that I don’t have a lot of money (I bought my large disk with Christmas money and almost all of my programs I got for free) but I have noticed that on my large and often times extremely full EHDD’s if I don’t defrag and optimize they get annoyingly slow (as in it’s not microscopic, it’s quite macroscopic). As I mentioned in an earlier post I use my EHDD for Backups (not just my devices but also other computers), Large Installers (so I can install them on other computers without having to find a disk and because I download quite a few of my installers from MSDNAA [student partnership so I paid once and continue to get stuff] and never bother burning them in the first place and because I like to have a backup in case the original disk gets destroyed), Videos and pictures. As for spending money on a disk defrag software I’d have to be quite desperate, no offense to anyone who thinks it’s necessary but I believe there’s almost always a better freeware solution (and most will agree with me). That’s why the only software I pay for on my computer is the proprietary stuff like Office 2007 Student (and I know about OpenOffice but it fails to follow the format of most of my docs and I end up having to redo half of my editing when I move it to another computer that uses Office so yes, buying Office was necessary for me).

@Paul: Most of the data on my drive won’t change for a while and it’s so heavily fragmented that I can see a visible difference in performance. There’s also the fact that since I mostly read data on the disk and not write to it I will ultimately save my disk and even electricity as less seek operations will be necessary. @RodeRunner: I doubt my disk is damaged at all but I will still check it to be on the safe side. The problem is simply that I have way to many files on it (backup files, videos, books, installers, ect.) I will also check out Auslogics and if that doesn’t work I’ll check out Raxco (though I’m not big on the idea of paying money to defrag my disk).

The reason I was asking about VHD is because that would allow me to share with anyone using Vista or 7 without them having to install Macrium. Nonetheless I actually did install Macrium and I’m experimenting a little bit. My current setup for backups is to have Macrium make an image of C (and only C) then use SyncToy (which I’ve been using) to copy everything else. SyncToy fails to copy certain files on the OS drive (C) which makes it ineffective as a backup tool but it’s never had any issues copying files on my other partitions/Drive including my data partition (where obviously enough I keep most of my non-OS data). With this setup I can still give friends easy access to most of my data while having a perfect backup of C. Also when I finally get my BackTrak Flash drive setup (BackTrak is a form of Linux used for data recovery and hacking purposes) I shouldn’t have too much trouble adding whatever software’s on Macrium’s Linux CD to it which would give me a really good backup solution. Eventually I hope to go back to my backup project but I’ll need to study a bit more programming to make it work well, perhaps eventually I’ll even make a superior backup solution of my own using the features I like most about other solutions (fast, can copy any file, makes file copies [not an image or compressed folders], also make a repair image, FREE).

Makes sense. Most computers I’ve worked with both old and new and much in between (old being 95ish and new being 2010) have F2, F10, or F12 as their Bios options. Something that might have been easier is to look at your manufacturers website. My laptop has a tool that allows me to change certain bios options, including boot order, while logged into Windows. Finally, many computers nowadays (and even some older ones) have both a bios button and a boot options button where the bios button is for changing bios options and the boot options button will allow you to select an alternate boot device for that particular boot (so if I usually boot from HDD and keep a disk in my DVD drive I can set my bios to boot from HDD then if I’m playing with Linux or something I hit the boot options key (can’t remember the exact name) and I select CD/DVD to boot into the Linux disk.

Also I think I myself will check into Macrium as I’m somewhat tired of trying my own solutions. It sounds like diva was looking for a similar solution to me where all the files are actually stored on the backup drive so anyone could access them.

Out of Curiosity could I make Macrium create VHD images that can be mounted via Disk Management. If so then I could use it as I usually share files with people that have Win Vista or 7.

Thanks VERY much, Zig and Fred. First the good news: I finally got my computer to recognize my first Macrium Rescue CD. However, that was about an hour after I read Zig’s message (and I only read yours, Fred, after I had succeeded). The problem is that when I start my PC, I do NOT see options. I repeatedly tried Zig’s suggestion of hitting Delete at various points before Windows started, but nothing worked. I then searched the computer’s online help. It did have instructions for booting from a CD/DVD, but the instructions said to hit any key when prompted, and I was never prompted, nor did hitting any key without a prompt help. I then looked at a large Windows 7 book. Nada. Skipping over several more dead ends, let me say that I finally tried F2 (instead of Delete), having vaguely recalled hitting F2 or F8 or F12 on my old Windows XP computer. Voilá! F2 worked! I then got where I needed to be to change the Boot order. I must say, all this was a lot easier on my old Windows XP Pro computer, which behaved very much like what you described, Fred.

Anyway, I’m now going to make an image using Macrium Free.

Again, many thanks to both of you.

The first thing I’d suggest is a virus scan. I’d recommend using Malwarebyte’s (http://www.malwarebytes.org/) as it’s still about the best (if not the best) standalone scanner. If that doesn’t come up with anything perhaps if you re-download Windows Explorer (or find it on the XP disc). That should fix any issues caused by explorer itself being corrupted. Otherwise I’d advise trying some registry scans see if anything comes up there.

I also use Ultimate Windows Tweaker (in fact I explicitly looked for a TweakUI replacement when I got my laptop with Vista on it [before upgrading to XP then to 7]) though I’ve found that some of it’s features don’t always work for me. I’ve not heard much about Win8 yet (except that it’s in the works) and I doubt it’ll be released anytime soon. The chances of it being better than Win7 are somewhat slim and the overall history of Windows has been somewhat wonder child, complete bomb, repeat (2000 was good, ME was fail, XP was good, Vista was fail, Win7 is good). The main features of Win7 are really good and it’s core has proven pretty stable overall so it would seem unlikely that we’ll need to upgrade anytime soon (unless they finally come up with those quantum processors which will require a radical change to the core of the system and thus a new OS).

One last thought if you’re ever looking for an automation app I’d suggest AutoIt as it’s extremely easy to learn/use and it’s quite feature packed and even supports custom libraries for things like interactive with firefox at the lower level (via a plugin I can’t remember the name of).

Rather than adding more software to your computer most of these issues can be addressed with a slightly different way of doing things.

For the Up on Level thing:
Without additional software you can’t get an actual up one level button which bugged me for a while but, if you just click the name of the previous folder in the address bar it does the same thing.

To copy an address there are two methods:
1.) Hold Shift and right click a file or folder then select copy as path (it will include quotes).
2.) Even easier. Just click in the address bar where a folder isn’t shown. I don’t believe I had to select an option for this.

For the Windows Shut Down:
I’m really not sure. I don’t have that problem and it appears Windows 7 always shuts down without confirmation. It does have a tendency of hanging though even though explorer is the only thing active but that’s because it’s supposed to be saving locations and stuff for future reference to the hard drive (many of the options we change in windows and explorer aren’t actually saved to the hard drive until shutdown, the exact ones I’m not sure of I’ve just noticed options reset when Windows crashed).

For the restoration of windows at startup:
I use the same option and I’ve never found a way to get the location/size to be restored.

Getting rid of the ‘toolbar’ with “Organize” and such:
Not sure on this one either. I just learned to live with it and use it. I don’t share and organize with it but it does help a little with your last question.

To Change the layout of a window:
This question is a bit vague. In the previously mentioned ‘toolbar’ (the single quotes because Windows doesn’t recognize it as such) there are the traditional options for icons or details (these can also be accessed with the view at the top or right click then view). Also via the right click menu is:
Arrange by: Will show just what you said, folder shows everything (default).
Sort by: Shows items in the folder in what order (was in XP).
Group by: Same as sort by but also separates things out. Can be used in conjunction with Sort by. (was in XP).

Hopefully this helps, mostly it sounds like you just need to get used to Win 7. Once you do you’ll never want to go back.

I tried MediaMonkey but it didn’t quite work the way I wanted. I did find another software though that seems to be working called iTunes Library Updater [http://itlu.ownz.ch/wordpress/?page_id=2%5D. I’m still testing this but if it works how I think it does I can combine it with SyncToy to keep all my libraries up to date. The only potential flaw is that it doesn’t seem to have been updated in a while.

While writing this post the program finished and it seems to have added a few files to my library that somehow went missing before.

The files attached are the output from the command line (hence the name) and part of the outputted ListC.txt (the full file is far to large to upload and the only method I know of to split it up would be RAR compression which doesn’t appear to be accepted.

I’ve confirmed using your addition that it’s not a recursive file. I still get the same error and results in the end file like: “C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataApplication DataAdobe” My command (in a command line) was: dir C: /a-L /b /s > “C:UsersGregLocal BackupsListC.txt”

If I could ignore shortcut files (or ignore the extension .lnk) then I could avoid this issue but there doesn’t appear to be an option for this.

The ‘folder’ “C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication Data” is actually a shortcut back to “C:Documents and SettingsAll Users” so it just loops continuously. Also since it’s obviously following this shortcut that also means that any other shortcuts to folders will be followed.

I’ll include a couple text files in my next post that may help.

@RetiredGeek
I’m not sure why your code works and mine doesn’t. You did type the same thing I did.

Again I’m referring to a command line code. The AutoIt script will just execute it like a batch file would.

If you open cmd and navigate into your C:UsersGreg folder, it appears you can select or exclude the magic pointers using the “L” attribute.

Code:

dir /aL

dir /a-L

I don’t know whether AutoIt uses the same parameters.