Ask DACS
August 2008

by Jim Scheef

Ask DACS is a question and answer session held at the start of the monthly general meeting. We solicit questions from the floor and by email (AskDACS@dacs.org). Hopefully we find the answers from those present at the meeting.

We had two questions sent in by email.

Q – The email questioner was present and asked about Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). Is it safe to install? Are there any gotchas?

A – Nearly half of the audience raised their hand that they are running Windows Vista and many have installed SP1. The first report was that the installation required “a long time” as in all day and nite, but that the system seemed “better” when the installation completed. So there may be some benefits. A second member said it took two attempts. The first attempt “failed” by requiring that anti-virus and anti-spyware programs be disabled before the installation could continue. Jeff Setaro offered the advice to close as many running programs as possible before starting to install any service pack. In addition it is prudent to run Disk Cleanup, especially if your system is low on disk space. I suggest doing as complete a backup as possible before the install. The minimum would be a “System State” backup that copies the Windows Registry and all files in the system root directory (normally c:\Windows). Last, if you download the .iso (CD image file) and burn it to a CD, your install is not dependent on communications and is thus slightly more assured of success. The consensus at the meeting was that Vista SP1 is OK to install.

Q – Not really a question: I made a correction to the Ask DACS write-up in the August newsletter where I said that installing a service pack from a CD would allow doing the install without first installing (and agreeing to) Windows Genuine Advantage. Rather, the Genuine Advantage acceptance is buried in the EULA (end user license agreement) that you click when you start the installation program. When the service pack installation completes, you can be assured that the Genuine Advantage tools will be part of your system. Proving this one way or the other is fairly difficult.

Q – The second email question was a repeat or follow up of the question about whether or not it is necessary to keep the hidden folders in the system root folder (c:\windows) created by Windows Updates.

A – When this comes up, I offer my experience. Periodically I sort the contents of the Windows folder by date and then delete the oldest of these folders, keeping only those from the last six months or so. Now, the fact that I do this – often out of necessity due to tight space in the system partition – does not guarantee that this is a good practice. After some searching, I cannot find an article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base on this topic for any version of Windows. This is even more inconclusive (sic).

If you do delete the uninstall folders, you can also remove the corresponding entries in the Add or Remove Programs applet, although this process is less than elegant. The easy way is to open the applet in Control Panel and turn on the list of updates by clicking the “Show Updates” checkbox at the top of the window (as Jeff pointed out at the meeting). Highlight an update entry with an installation date from the time period you have deleted and click the Remove button. You will see an “Uninstaller Error” dialog that suggests that the update may have already been uninstalled and offers to move the entry from the Add or Remove Programs list. Click Yes and the entry will disappear. If you pick a wrong entry in the list and the uninstaller wizard actually starts to run, just click cancel and be more careful what you click next. Since there could be more than a hundred entries in the list, this can be both arduous and boring.

The other way to remove these entries is to delete the registry key for the update in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\]. Each update has a key named with the Knowledge Base article number, like KB911927. This is the only way to remove an Add or Remove Programs entry for an update that cannot be uninstalled from Windows. Those entries do not have a Remove button. I have not determined if such updates actually create an uninstall folder. Once again, I need to give the warning that I have no idea if this is actually a good practice.

Since this list is something one looks at so seldom, these uninstall entries are largely cosmetic and removing every one from the list seems a little obsessive to me. You can read a blog article “Clear space on your hard drive by deleting old Windows uninstall folders” by Dennis O'Reilly on CNET.

My philosophy on removing these uninstall folders comes from the fact that each update is layered on the previous updates. I believe that uninstalling even one update from more than one or two months back is likely to make your system more unstable than whatever problem you may be trying to correct because the uninstall could replace a DLL that has been patched in another update.

Q – Not really a question: In an email, a member offered to donate or give away some Windows 98 machines to anyone who might be able to use them. Since few DACS members would consider such a machine adequate today, I read a description of how to “properly” recycle a PC so as to recover as much value as possible. This information will find its way to the DACS website where it will add to some options that are more appropriate for the typical member.

Several members also offered suggestions of local businesses that will accept consumer electronics, including computers and monitors for recycling. Costco and Staples have recycling information on their websites. Costco offers a trade-in on some items. Trade-in value for my old Winbook laptop was $8. From this value, they would deduct for things like a non-functional battery. At the end of the process, you print what appears to be a pre-paid UPS shipping label. You must be a Costco member so I was not able to go thru to the end.

Q – A member related her experience with what at first appeared to be an email from her Bank. The email said that her account had been locked because of unauthorized access.

A – This was a classic phishing email. This led to an extensive discussion about phishing and how to avoid the traps. The final advice was to use the latest version of your favorite browser (Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 7, Opera 9) and to keep it up to date. Last, be sure the phishing filters are enabled.

Q – How can I change my default browser from IE to something else?

A – There two places where you need to make this change. The first is to simply allow the browser to check and to make itself the default browser.

The second place applies to Windows XP and (similarly) Vista. In XP open “Set Program Access and Defaults." Normally this is an option in the Start menu, but if you got sick of looking at this almost never used program and removed it from the Start Menu, then open Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel and look at the left side of the window. In the case of Windows Vista look for "Default Programs" on the Start menu or in the Control Panel, and click to open "Set program access and computer defaults." In either case (XP or Vista), open the “non-Microsoft” or "Custom" configuration and select an alternate browser under "Choose a default web browser."

Q – I was given a used machine and keep getting a pop up that says it is from AOL. How can I get rid of this?

A – This sounds like a malware program that has become embedded in Windows. One suggestion was to download and burn a bootable scanner CD from F-Secure to scan the PC, but the consensus was to wipe the hard drive clean with a product like Darik's Boot and Nuke and then reinstall Windows. If the infected machine will boot, a product like ProduKey from NirSoft (this website has many useful tools and utilities) will extract and save the CD keys for all Microsoft products installed. Symantec considers this a hacker tool and quarantines it, so special handling may be needed. Once you have the CD keys, wipe the hard drive and reinstall. Be sure to apply the latest service pack immediately and then all updates.

Q – I have AOL and pictures do not always appear correctly. If I use Internet Explorer rather than AOL, the pictures display correctly.

A – The flip answer is: don’t use AOL. The problem involves the compression that AOL uses to speed the display of web pages. This is a holdover from the days of dial-up modems and is not really needed now that we have faster connections. It may be possible to turn this compression off in AOL options.

Submit any question to: askdacs@dacs.org.