• What is a computer virus?
• What MS Windows Service Pack is installed on my system?
• Why is my system running slow?
• What is Spyware?
• How do I access Windows XP Recovery Console without the Administrators password?

What is a Computer Virus

A program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. This program usually infects your computer through email as an attachment.  Though it can arrive as well from infected programs on Floppy Diskettes and CDROMs by piggy backing on desirable programs. Infections can occur to the Boot sector programs which are necessary to start your computer, other software executables which are used to start programs, Macro's which are small programs within a document or spreadsheet that perform certain functions and the system registry, which contains all of the configuration settings for you Windows based operating system, by adding lines to start programs such as the MSBlast worm which was recently released into the wild.   Viruses can also replicate themselves. All computer viruses are manmade. A simple virus that can make a copy of itself over and over again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and bring the system to a halt. An even more dangerous type of virus is one capable of transmitting itself across networks and bypassing security systems.

Since 1987, when a virus infected ARPANET, a large network used by the Defense Department and many universities, many antivirus programs have become available. These programs periodically check your computer system for the best-known types of viruses.

Some people distinguish between general viruses and worms. A worm is a special type of virus that can replicate itself and use memory, but cannot attach itself to other programs.

 

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What MS Windows Service Pack is installed on my system

To determine the level of MS Windows 2000 and XP Service Pack installed on your computer system perform the following action.

Using the mouse position the cursor over the My Computer icon on your desktop, if you are using Windows XP with the default Taskbar configuration click on START and find My Computer in the Taskbar menu,  then press the right mouse button (Right Click) and a menu will be revealed, select PROPERTIES from this menu by pressing the left mouse button (Left Click).  

An alternate way in which to get this information is by pressing START moving the cursor to SETTINGS and when the next menu appears move the cursor over CONTROL PANEL and press the left mouse button (Left Click) on the following windows find the SYSTEM icon and press the left mouse button twice rapidly (Double Click).

Once the Properties window appears you will see on the GENERAL tab some system information. Listed under "System:" you will see what Service Pack is installed.  If no Service Pack is listed then no Service Pack is installed.

For Windows NT 4.0 the Service Pack Level is shown during boot up on a Blue Screen usually in the top right corner of the screen.

Unfortunately there is no way to determine this information on Windows 95, 98 & Me.

Current Service Pack Levels are..... 

Windows Vista = Service Pack 1

Windows XP Home & Professional = Service Pack 3

Windows 2000 Server and Professional = Service Pack 4

Windows NT 4.0 Server and Workstation = Service Pack 7

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Why is my system running slow?

There are a number of factors which can produce slow system performance. There a two common reasons however.  These are Fragmented files in the file system and insufficient memory (RAM).

Fragmented files can be resolved readily by running the Defragmentation utility provided with most Operating System. To access this utility on MS Windows based systems perform the following actions.  Using the mouse, position the cursor over the My Computer Icon and press the Left mouse button twice rapidly (Double Click), Windows XP users with the default Taskbar configuration press START find the My Computer icon and press it. When the My Computer windows opens find your primary hard drive, usually indicated by the name "Local Disk (C:)"  Using the right mouse button click on the icon and select with the left mouse button PROPERTIES this will bring up the properties windows for the select drive.  Once the properties windows is open select the TOOLS tab. on this tab you will find at least two utilities, "Error Checking" and "Defragmentation".  It is suggested to run the "Error Checking" before "Defragmentation".  When running error checking select "Repair Automatically" and if available "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" Then start the utility.  Once "Error Checking" is completed then start the "Defragmentation".  Depending on the operating system you may have an analyze and a defragment button, select the defragment button and away it will go.  The amount of time needed to perform this action is dependent on the amount of data to be checked.

As for memory (RAM). Insufficient memory will cause a significant increase in the use of the systems Swap or Page file, AKA Virtual Memory. Every little program you run takes memory (RAM). All of the icons which represent active system programs in the system tray are taking memory.  Using Virtual Memory takes longer because the hard drive is slower at accessing data than real memory (RAM).  Also in relation to fragmentation the swap file used in virtual memory can become fragmented, further increasing the access time.  For performance reasons Microsoft recommends that the swap/page file be no larger that 1.5 times the amount of real memory (RAM).  If the page file is being over used then increasing the amount of real memory (RAM) should increase performance and decrease page file utilization.  Also removing programs which you don't use often from the system tray would free up more real memory.  Programs like MS Messenger , AOL Instant Messenger and Spyware are candidates for performance inhibitors. Don't run the messenger services at startup instead put an Icon on your desktop and start them when you need them.  As for Spyware I would suggest downloading, installing and running an application called Spybot.

Other areas of performance decrease include the Processor and the Hard drive itself.  The processor may be too slow to use with certain programs and the hard drive may be starting to physically break down. 

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What is Spyware?

As for Spyware's impact on your computer.
As the amount of spyware installed on your computer increases the performance of your computer will decrease.  Each piece of spyware loads itself on computer startup and takes a piece of RAM memory.  This memory is no longer available to run the programs you want to run and will cause your system to begin to run slow.  See Why is my system running slow?   for an explanation of what is happening to your computer.  I would suggest downloading, installing and running an application called Spybot.  this will find and remove most Spyware.  it will also immunize against further installation of known Spyware.  it is not perfect but will help you stay in control of your computer.

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I Forgot my Recovery Console Password, How can I login without it?

In many XP installations you can't start the Recovery Console because it won't recognize your password. This registry edit causes the Recovery Console not to ask for a password. This works for both XP Home and XP Professional.

Start | Run | Regedit
Navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Setup \RecoveryConsole
Set the DWORD SecurityLevel value to 1
Exit Registry and Reboot

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