Vista home basic 32bit laptop help

jumpy

jumpy

jumpy

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Hopefully this is in the right subsection of the forum - I don't often have tech troubles I cannot fix myself, so please bear with me...


My aunt has an older laptop (1gb ram not more than 1.7ghz cpu) with vista home basic (32bit) and recently had some issues with a virus or two.
She has a new copy of norton internet security (bleargh) 2010.

This was duly installed by me and cleaned the computer, but it shafted her internet connection, so that even with NIS un-installed her internet was broken. Proxy server issues.

Any way, after removing NIS, I tried the following 4 free av software:

Avast (what I'm currently using)
AVG
Avira
Comodo

Avast had some error about split profile or some such, and had to be removed in safe mode with a special uninstaller.
AVG failed to install correctly.
Avira was a whole bunch of files in a .zip with no installer or setup.exe
Comodo installed just fine, but did nothing, refused to run and now cannot be uninstalled (looked online and you can remove it using the cmd prompt, but this looks like loads of grief)

Currently she has no working AV and I cannot for the life of me think how to fix this.

Her user account is Admin, so I wouldn't have thought there's any rights issues, though I could be wrong.
Also the windows task manager is missing - ctrl-alt-del brings up a menu to switch user/lock etc, but when you select task manager from this list, FA happens.
I'm used to dealing with XP and as far as I'm aware, Vista was a pos from the start.

Her laptop was second hand so there is no install or windows disk, but there is a partition which I'm assuming to contain the backup/install info. I could be wrong.

I'm considering attempting a system restore point in the hope that it will leave me somewhere after NIS but before Avast.

I'm pointing the finger of blame firmly in the direction of vista and its babysitting 'are you sure you want to do that' in triplicate warning system any time you want to do anything to modify a program. The OS is up to date.

If it was mine I'd look for a copy of XP home or W7 and use that after scrubbing the whole damn thing clean.
The machine itself is ok, but the os doesn't seem to be co-operating.

I'm relatively tech savvy, having built and maintained my own desktops for over ten years, but this laptop is causing me to rage lol. Any of you guys who could shed a little light on the sitch, would be a real boon.

Gotta try and get my head round this by wednesday, as I promised to go back round and fix it after consulting the internet (you lot ;) )
 
Have you tried going into IE and doing?

Code: 
 Tools
Internet options
Connection
Lan Settings
Click automatically detect settings'
uncheck use proxy server for your lan

Give it a scan with malwarebytes too.
 
I can't uninstall comodo or use the task manager (amongst other things). Now she has no usable AV software and all of the ones I have tried either fail to install/run/uninstall and the only one that does work (NIS) stuffs her internet connection, even though all of the rules say 'allow firefox/IE' or whatever. I had to reinstall her bt home hub thing before her internet would work again afte I removed NIS.
I stopped using NIS on my pc for the very reason that it was buggy as hell and was super tight with allowing programs access to the internet, so much so that it was just impossible to use. It would seem that nothing has changed.
Software that works with XP with no issues at all, seems to fail miserably on vista, to the point where you cannot even uninstall it.

Anyone have any experience of AV that actually works with Vista Home basic 32bit, or advice on wiping the system and starting from scratch with the laptop, bearing in mind there's no windows installer disk?

I've looked online and there's plenty of searches regarding stuff that vista doesn't work with eg antivirus programs that fail to install/uninstall or even just work a little bit.

I was hoping someone here could give me a place to start afresh, seeing as all of my knowledge of computers seems to have been defeated by this damn laptop.



I tried the network settings 'detect proxy' etc in the browser and after turning all that jazz off, it made the connection again, but this was after redoing the bt home hub software too.

Current situation is it has no working AV but the internet works.

I hate working on other peoples computers :p
 
1st off just about any AV will work with Vista that isn't the problem imo. More than likely the install is screwed or the virus is still about. A clean install likely is the best bet. Laptops almost never come with recovery cds or windows disc anymore. There is sometimes an option to make a recovery cd yourself, thou I'm guessing she didn't do this if there was and there would be no point now as it would only create a bad image.

There is likely to be a recovery partition on the HDD, this is access via a key press just before windows loads. Each manufacturer uses a different key or key combo, but googling the make and model (or posting it here) + recovery partition will lead you to this info.

If I was to guess at what has happened, the virus has messed up parts of the registry and this has left you with this mess of a windows install. A clean install is likely the fastest and easiest way to fix this.

There is a chance that turning the following into a .reg file and merging it might fix the issue but it is a long shot I'd say.

Code: 
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.exe\shell\open\command]

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\secfile\shell\open\command]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe\shell\open\command]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe]
@="exefile"
"Content Type"="application/x-msdownload"

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\secfile]

Oh and as a side note use ctrl + shift + esc on Vista and above to launch the task manager.
 
Last edited:
Crowort said:
Oh and as a side note use ctrl + shift + esc on Vista and above to launch the task manager.
Click to expand...


That works in XP as well. :p



Spybot, AVG, or both, can't remember tbh have a download that you can burn to disc and boot from it, maybe an idea to do that.
 
Yeah it works in XP. I should have said it is a must for Vista and win 7. I.E. ctrl + alt + del (which most people used to XP will be used too) brings up the switch user type screen. Yes you can launch task manager from there but it is a pain.
 
Thanks for the suggestions....


Well, as I suspected, window$ was broken.

Have since confirmed that the 'other partition' of the hdd was the packard-bell restore to factory settings/windows/programs basic install when you get the laptop new from the shop.

I should know better with windows products that the only way to 'fix' them when they break is by wiping/formatting the whole lot clean and begin again from scratch. Saves a lot of hasstle and grief in the long run.

I'm posting from it now - all is working as best as can be expected, given the specs of the machine dual core celeron 1.7ghz 1gb ram.
Vista uses quite a bit of that and norton used even more, so I went with avast instead... now vista is fixed (format reinstall windows mantra) everything works like it should. The age old struggle of man vs machine concludes another chapter of victory for man :p

I've also switched on the guest account and passworded the admin so my aunts neice cannot install loads of toolbars and other junk, which I suspect was the cause of all the infection in the first place. All I have to do now is teach my aunt about updates and basic maintenance of her pc, and my work here is done :cool:
 
My money would have been on use of the downloadable Norton removal tool would have fixed the internet issues, apologies for being too late to help.
 
Dano said:
My money would have been on use of the downloadable Norton removal tool would have fixed the internet issues, apologies for being too late to help.
Click to expand...


Oh yer I forgot norton had a removal tool, I had to use it to remove systemworks years back, although it still never worked properly as I couldn't install the new AV, so had to delete a load of crap from the registry, which I didn't like doing but got there in the end. damn I hate norton. :rolleyes:
 
lol np Dano.

One thing that I discovered was an older version of norton (2005?) bundled with the partition reinstall.
My aunt said it had AV when she got it that then ran out, so she got the latest NIS to replace it.
I guess some of the issues were in part due to there being more than one av installed at the same time; though this was hard to tell from the program files folder/installed programs list.

The task manager was unresponsive either way. But that's all sorted now *rubs hands together with glee*

Norton was my first experience of AV software. At the time I didn't know any better, but for a bit of software sold/bundled to the level of user I was back then, it sure is annoyingly difficult to use or configure. Wouldn't' have it anywhere near my pc now lol
 
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