Hi ,
I'm going to give a different view on this.
I think it somewhat misplaced to blame one particular thing on the fact
that a computer is locking up or crashing.
There are a myriad of reasons why this could happen.
Yes,it may be due to a virus and even some programs,but it could also be
hardware related.
To class a program like Fix-It like worse than worthless is also an
overstatement.
Same for Registry cleaners.And why not include AV and Anti-Malware
programs as well?.
All these programs, barring the rogue ones, do have some merit.
It's ironic that in the same breath Malwarebytes Anti-malware is
mentioned - implying it is safe
and better than Fix-It. My take: Both are good if used properly.
The fact is -NONE of them are really foolproof or safe.They all have to
be used with discretion.
Blindly deleting what the program has marked as dangerous is what is
dangerous in itself.
They all show false positives and sometimes because of a malfunction
within the program,
would show more positives than are really there.
BTW, this happened to me with Malwarebytes AS as well as Super Anti
Spyware.
For some reason the core service hadn't started fully and the programs
were listing numerous files in the WINDOWS folder
and System32 folder as dangerous.Had I not scrutinized the results ,I
would have wiped out main portions of my system,
since the majority were legitimate MS files. And NO -they were not
corrupted -which a subsequent check showed.
My point? To use ANY of these programs, you have to be prepared to learn
about your system and scrutinize the results.
If not sure about an entry ,do a search or submit to VirusTotal
http://www.virustotal.com/
It uses about 40 different malware scanner programs results.
If none or only one or two report it as dangerous -it may not be
dangerous at all,but a false positive in the program that reports it.
If in doubt, quarantine the file -if things stop working in an affected
program,
re-instate the file and mark it as an exception in the anti-malware
program.
IOW, the programs are not dangerous, it's the people who use it with the
mistaken believe that these protection programs
are safe, that are. ;)
ALWAYS set a Restore Point before you start a scan or before deleting
anything (if the program doesn't do it for you).
Quarantine, rather than delete, unless it's very obvious and you know
for sure it's a dangerous file.
Quarantine or delete in batches,rather than all the entries found.That
way you can restore just the ones
that seem to effect the operation of a legitimate program.
There's more to this,but I'll leave it as is for now.
Peter E.
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] computer crashing
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Wed, October 07, 2009 1:04 pm
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
> Most people will tell you that "Fix it" programs are worse than
> worthless as they often cause the very problems they allege to prevent.
> Registry cleaners in particular are notorious for this.
> I'd say your problem is more likely from malware than viruses, as Avast
> (Note the spelling) is a good AV program.
> Try Malawarebytes ant-malware:
> http://www.malwarebytes.org/
> Uninstall "Fix it".
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: computer crashing
> From: sharon <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Tue, October 06, 2009 5:05 pm
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> hello there, i was running xp 5.1, advast is my antivirus program, and
> fix it is program that won't let programs start when the computer starts
>
> and it cleans the registery and suppose to fix errors on your disk.
> sorry i'm not to good at explaining these things but i will send you a
> link for the fix it you can figure that one out.
> out.http://www.avanquestusa.com/company/pressreleases/2007/prnov82007-fi8release.asp
> i am going to have windows reinstalled on my computer because i am sure
> it has a virus. thank you for any help. mispie
>
> Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
> articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
> http://freepctech.com
Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
http://freepctech.com
|
