ACR Help Blog

Christmas is almost here. It’s the time of the year for giving. However, there are some bad software attacks springing up that could end up giving you the holiday computer blues.

For firefox users: There has been a report of a piece of malware floating around targeting just firefox users. This malware disguises itself as the popular add-on “Greasemonkey”. However, this malware will identify more than 100 banking websites that you may visit/use and then collect account data from these sites like your username and password. Mozzila is working on the problem and, if you have an updated anti-virus and scan regularly, you should be ok. More info can be found here.

Email scams abound: You may have noticed a few extra things poping up in your email inbox from various companies recently announcing holiday sales and the like. But be wary of these. While they can be legit there are some scams like these floating around that can infect your computer with a virus.

As usual, careful browsing habbits and good protection practices will generally keep you safe throught this holiday season.

Two days ago Grisoft, makers of AVG Anti-Virus released a bugged virus update to their product. So far the only known affected OS is Windows XP. This update identifies a legitimate windows file: user32.dll as a virus and suggests you remove the file. DO NOT DO THIS! user32.dll is a perfectly safe file and is nesecary for the operation of windows. Removing the file will cause windows to cease booting. If you’ve had the bad fortune of already deleting the file you’re not out of luck. If you have a Windows XP install cd you can use the repair option. This option appears just after the license agreement. (Key Sequence: [Enter], [F8], [R])

If you don’t happen to have a Windows XP install disc you can alternatively download and burn a copy of The Ultimate Boot CD. Boot the computer with this CD and restore a copy of user32.dll from “C:\Windows\System32\dllcache” to “C:\Windows\System32″.

Grisoft has since released an update to AVG that eliminates this bug. Users with a definition file dated 11/12/08 (today) or later should be safe from this problem.

Adobe recently released the 10th version of their free flash player software. Flash is almost a required program for web browsing. Sites like youtube, imeem, myspace, and more use flash to play media.

However, FP 10 no longer supports the following older operating systems:

Windows 98/98SE

Windows ME

Macintosh OSX 10.1 – 10.3

Red Hat® Enterprise Linux 3 and 4

Currently Adobe suggest you download and use Flash Player 9 for these OS. This fix will work fine for now and you shouldn’t have any troubles using sites like youtube.

Recently both Check Point and Grisoft released software updates to their programs. Both of these updates have had unexpected bugs that can cause problems for users.

First up, Check Point has issued a software update for it’s Zone Alarm firewall.  This update can, unintentionally, set the internet firewall to the highest possible level. This can cut off a users internet access. Some ISPs have advised customers to uninstall Zone Alarm. You do not want to do this. To fix this problem, open up the Zone Alarm control panel by double-clicking the little ‘Z’ icon in your system tray. (next to the clock) Once the panel is open, look along the left side of it for a button that says “Firewall” on it. Click on it and be sure the “Internet Zone Security” level is set to “Medium”. This should fix your problem.

Grisoft has also released a bugged update for their AVG anti-virus. This bug will shut off the Mail Scanner component to update it however, when it’s finished updating, it will not turn the scanner back on. If you’re having problems with it (commonly it will say “no plug-ins installed” in the AVG control panel) do this:

1) Go to the Start menu and click on “Run”

2) In the box that pops up type this “C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8\avgemc.exe” (WITH the “” marks)

That should fix your problem.

EDIT: Check Point has released a fix for the Zone Alarm bug. You can find the solutions here.

As many of you may have heard already, Microsoft is discontinuing production of Windows XP. After June 30th retailers and OEMs will no longer be able to purchase fresh copies of the OS from Microsoft. This does not mean that it will no longer be sold anywhere. It just means that quantities will be limited. We will do our upmost to stock up on addtional copies for our customers who may decide to eventually upgrade.

Microsoft’s newest offering, Windows Vista, while not as horribly bad as some say, has very high system requirements. As such some of our customers will not be able to run Vista on their machines. In short, if you want to upgrade to XP, now is the time as we will only have limited quantities in stock after june 30th.

AVG 8.0 has been out for a couple of weeks now. This means that the 7.5 version that many of our customers have will no longer be supported at the end of this month (may). Here are a few things you will want to know before upgrading:

1) AVG 8.0 is no longer compatable with any windows version under 2000. As a result we are currently researching a seperate anti-virus that does support older windows versions and should have a download available on our website before the May 31st deadline.

2) When updating your AVG installation to 8.0 it is highly advised to uninstall your old AVG before installing 8.0. The 8.0 installer has trouble with “over the top” installs and, as a result, this could severly damage your AVG installation and leave  you without virus protection.

3) AVG 8.0 sports a much flashier interface and several new features. As a result, it requires more memory. If, after updating to 8.0, your computer starts running slowly it may mean you need more memory.

To download AVG 8.0 Free and find a full tutorial on updating from 7.5 to 8.0. Visit our downloads section.

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