Knowledgebase
Safe mode is an operating mode of Windows available in Windows 95 and beyond. Safe mode allows you to run the computer on the bare minimum of loaded drivers and applications. In safe mode, your normal startup applications will not load. This is especially useful when it is necessary to remove a virus, piece of spyware, or simply remove a stubborn application that may be causing your system to crash.
Removing Unwanted Spyware or Adware
Spyware is any software that is installed (either by accident or unintentionally) onto a personal computer. The software is able to run in the background without the knowledge of the user, collecting data about the users' internet use. Spyware is able to harvest email addresses as well as log web browsing history, all while sending this private data to a data collection server somewhere on the internet, where the email addresses will be sold to spammers. Spyware is one of the most widespread forms of malware (malicious software) that is currently being distributed on the internet to unsuspecting internet surfers.
In school they taught you about the birds and the bees and how they should interact in a safe way. Well, here on the internet the same rules should apply... Somewhat. I'm not asking you to wear latex gloves when you type, but I will outline some basic ideas to help prevent viruses, worms, and spyware from infecting your computer. It will save you the embarassing call to your local I.T. guy "Doc, I've got popups..." I also suggest some great tools that are freely available on the internet which block malicious code before they can ever affect you.
HPBRO Memory Leak Fix - A.K.A. FixHPBRO.EXE
I have an HP network printer here at home which was causing some problems when its driver would load itself repeatedly on my computer. This causes HPBPRO.EXE and HPBBOID.EXE to run about 5 copies of themselves for no apparent reason which would slow my computer down and I would have to manually end each running process before it would eat 100% of my CPU. Here I have the files provided by HP to fix the memory leak issue as well as steps to follow to correct the problem.
How-To Remove VirusBursters, SmitFraud, Generic Zlob, and QuickNavigate
SmitFraud has become a term to mean an infection where fake security alerts appear in your taskbar stating that you are infected. These alerts tend to be accompanied by a rogue anti-spyware program installed on your computer without your consent. Clicking on one of these fake security alerts will either bring you to a home page where you can purchase other fraudulent software or it will install automatically, without your permission, one of these pieces of malicious software.
Installing Service Pack 2 for Windows XP (Home/Professional)
Service Packs are important updates that Microsoft makes available to their customers. These updates help fix bugs (problems in the original code), patch security flaws, and generally improve system performance. They are also necessary in order to attain the latest patches and hot-fixes via Windows update. This being said, I have written this write-up in case you need help installing the service pack. If you run into any trouble, feel free to ask me for some help.
I wrote this document to help people get the WMP54G Wireless PCI adapter working in Linux. The steps described within are using OpenSuSe 10.2 and the WMP54G v4 Linksys wifi card. Its rather easy to do, but only if you have the right information from the very beginning. If you need any additional help after reading this, feel free to post it in my forums, or comment directly below the article itself.