DOS-like window popped up...what was it?
- Thread starter Angilion
- Start date
Some software does that and it is nothing to worry about. On the other hand it could be something dodgy.
one thing you have to accept about computers is that they are off their heads and do stuff and you don't know why, they get infected, they lose the plot, the software you have installed may do crazy stuff or argue with other software you have installed.
It's a minefield!
Do some scans with your virus app, and try a spyware scan.
I once saw someone post something like:
the only secure computer is one that is switched off, disconnected from the mains, hard drive smashed up, and buried six feet under the ground.
THIS IS TRUE!
one thing you have to accept about computers is that they are off their heads and do stuff and you don't know why, they get infected, they lose the plot, the software you have installed may do crazy stuff or argue with other software you have installed.
It's a minefield!
Do some scans with your virus app, and try a spyware scan.
I once saw someone post something like:
the only secure computer is one that is switched off, disconnected from the mains, hard drive smashed up, and buried six feet under the ground.
THIS IS TRUE!
Aye like buachille says it could be just some software on your comp checking for updates. or it could be spyware/virus.
as said, give it a check with a scanner and see what comes up.
otherwise you could always format. that would kill whatever it was..
as said, give it a check with a scanner and see what comes up.
otherwise you could always format. that would kill whatever it was..
- Joined
- 5 Dec 2003
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- Just to the left of my PC
That sounds promising. How did you find out what it was? I'm not familiar with the event viewer, but I had a look at it and found nothing. Although I might have found something if I knew what I was looking for.
- Joined
- 5 Dec 2003
- Posts
- 21,063
- Location
- Just to the left of my PC
Aye like buachille says it could be just some software on your comp checking for updates. or it could be spyware/virus.
as said, give it a check with a scanner and see what comes up.
otherwise you could always format. that would kill whatever it was..
A bit drastic, methinks
I have the resident parts of AVG and Spybot (Teatimer) running all the time, plus Zone Alarm for the firewall.
BitDefender online scan found no viruses. Sypybot's running a scan now.
I have a thing about not knowing what's going on. It bugs me.
yeah me too, but i've learned to live with it. computers are so complicated that unless you are really really clued up (and i know a bit about computers but really compared to pro's i know nothing), then you need a nice basic solution.
i.e - buy something like acronis true image and nice big external hard drive (or 2), then do a clean install of windows and install windows updates and all the apps you know you need and will need in future, adjust windows to work the way you want it to. you know all the stuff you have to do like set the page file, set clear type if you're on a tft, switch off error reporting, use tweak ui - on xp anyway - to set your special folders if you don't store your docs on the same hard disk or partition as your windows installation (which is just a silly thing to do so don't do it - trust me i found out the hard way. if your windows install dies, just reinstall and all your docs and stuff are on the other hard drive or partition), and a million other things involved in getting your machine working the way you want it. during all this don't browse the internet, only go to windows update or other trusted sites where you get software you know is safe. you don't want to create an image of an infected machine!!
then once you've done all that, create an image of your installation with true image (or similar) software. then if your machine goes belly up you just restore the image. takes about 20 minutes (well on xp - vista is huge so will take longer but not as long as a clean install) instead of forever. once you've done it you will have to update a good few of your programs that have been updated since you made the image, but it is a great time saver. i had to do it recently wth a laptop and a desktop. got both reinstalled very quickly.
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Spybot does it with several of its major updates. Some programs use wget to download their patches.
Always bothers me that it exits as opposed to waiting for user input before it does so you can review what it actually has done.
And yeah, i haven't used zonealarm in a good few years, remember back then it was useless and problematic, and fro msounds of things hasn't improved much.
As it quickly popped up I noticed that it said something about zonealarm. Also the little arrow showing an update was on the icon down by the clock.
Why not disable ZoneAlarm when you start a game and then you can eliminate anything?
