PC TECHS! What software tools do you run to fix a persons computer?

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zombeh

[H]ard|Gawd
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Not sure if this is the right section but, what programs do you run on customers computers to get their PC running at top speed?

Here's what i do to get rid of viruses/spyware and other crap:

-download and install FREE AVG, SPYBOT, and ADAWARE
-Uninstall crap programs
-Run Msconfig
-Disk cleanup and defrag


Now your turn.
 
I have a 4gb USB key loaded with

Windows PowerShell
ClamAV
Spybot S&D
hijack this
SIW

I get on a system, immediately run taskkill /f /fi "username eq <user>" /fi "imagename ne cmd.exe"
run clamAV from command line
reload explorer.exe and run hijack this, kill any processes that shouldnt be there, then go through add/remove, get rid of whatever i can that doesnt need to be there/isnt used by customer, then run spybot s&d

last i run services.msc and configure it to be as lean as possible without killing functionality for the customer. msconfig is weak in comparison.

and if i am doing a consult i run SIW and recommend some hardware upgrades and possibly new systems, depending on what the hardware is.
 
Narisatu said:
I have a 4gb USB key loaded with

Windows PowerShell
ClamAV
Spybot S&D
hijack this
SIW

I get on a system, immediately run taskkill /f /fi "username eq <user>" /fi "imagename ne cmd.exe"
run clamAV from command line
reload explorer.exe and run hijack this, kill any processes that shouldnt be there, then go through add/remove, get rid of whatever i can that doesnt need to be there/isnt used by customer, then run spybot s&d

last i run services.msc and configure it to be as lean as possible without killing functionality for the customer. msconfig is weak in comparison.

and if i am doing a consult i run SIW and recommend some hardware upgrades and possibly new systems, depending on what the hardware is.
Click to expand...

Never heard of SIW, thanks!
 
I use AVG, Spybot, and Ad-Aware free editions mostly, although occasionally I'll break out HijackThis if the occasion calls for it. I also have this handy utility that repairs the network stack in Win2K and XP which has turned out to be quite handy in certain situations. I also have AVG's anti-rootkit utility, and I keep a few other general utilities like CPU-Z, Motherboard Monitor, Speedfan, Core Temp, etc. just in case. Actually, going through my utilities it strikes me that it might be a good idea to keep a copy of HD Tach and the Firefox installer on my USB drive as well :).
 
I love ccleaner. It gets rid of a lot of crud, more than disk cleanup does, especially if you run it in safe mode.

It has a registry cleaner feature built into that I have used with great success. (Don't kill me, guys. I don't do it often.)
 
2nd post does what i usually do, also.. look into ultimatedefrag and winaso.

ultimatedefrag can really speed up an old computer, winaso cleans out the registry if you are into that kind of stuff ^^
 
ccleaner
clamAV
Ad-Aware 2006
some geeksquad MRI program a friend gave me
Hiren's Boot CD

obv other very specific apps too but these make up 99% of all the tools i regularly use. Hiren's is the best CD ever created for PC diagnostics, period.
 
Hiren's Boot CD? ill have to check that out, I use Ultimate Boot CD, BackTrack 2 (moving to 3 in a few weeks once I have tested it fully), and SystemRescue as my boot CDs, depending on what I am doing.

edit: holy crap.. that boot CD has a ton of amazing apps.. looks like i have another boot cd to test in a virtual environment for a bit, see if it will replace both UBC and SR. Then i can move those off of my bootable USB, and add that.
 
I use Spyware Doctor and Kaspersky Anti-Virus to clean just about anything off!
Both are top rated at PC World...
 
Hiren's BootCD is a no-no here for discussion: it's well known that the disc is made up of almost entirely commercial software products (ok, it does have quite a few completely free but not strictly open source tools on it) and is classified as "warez" soooo...

Personally I make an Ultimate BootCD for myself (www.ubcd4win.com, or the straight "DOS" version at www.ultimatebootcd.com) and have it not only on a CD but also transferred to a USB stick using PE2USB, a "converter" utility that can take any BartPE created preinstallation environment and transfer it over to a bootable USB stick. It's the best of both worlds and has precisely the tools I want on it, which are well into the 200+ range, mostly open source goodies, some stuff I coded myself, as well as the obligatory registered commercial products I've acquired in my 3+ decades of fixing PCs.
 
Narisatu said:
Hiren's Boot CD? ill have to check that out, I use Ultimate Boot CD, BackTrack 2 (moving to 3 in a few weeks once I have tested it fully), and SystemRescue as my boot CDs, depending on what I am doing.

edit: holy crap.. that boot CD has a ton of amazing apps.. looks like i have another boot cd to test in a virtual environment for a bit, see if it will replace both UBC and SR. Then i can move those off of my bootable USB, and add that.
Click to expand...

Hiren's Boot CD contains UBCD in its entirety along with a ton of other stuff, so it should definitely replace UBCD in your repertoire :).
 
First, I configure the Start Menu & Taskbar to show Control Panel as a Menu and don't hide System Tray items, show extensions, display path in title bar, do not cache thumbnails, mouse pointer snap to default button (everyone grows to love that).
Then, go into Add/Remove Programs and remove any suspect software, including lackluster firewall & antivirus.
Next, run HijackThis, and eliminate unnecessary items, then reboot.
Install AVG free and Comodo, and configure each to not bother the user.
Install and run Ad Aware, SuperAntispyware, and CCleaner.
Install and run O&O Defrag before I leave.

IMO, an HJT scan is always mandatory.

The "Essential" apps on my thumbdrive for new OS installs (O&O Trial is for problem PCs):

Adobe Acrobat 8.1
AVG Antivirus 8.0.1 (it's time to play with Avast though...AVG's end-of-version-support is annoying)
CCleaner 2.07
Comodo Firewall 2.4.18.184
HijackThis 2.0
Java Runtime Env v6u3
Lavasoft AdAware 2007
Mozilla Firefox 2.0
Nero 6 Ultra Edition 6.6.0.3
Nullsoft Winamp 5.08
O&O Defrag Trial
Picasa
Super Antispyware 4.15.1000
WinRAR 3.42
WinZip 9.0
 
i've narrowed it down to just using a mixture of safe mode, hijackthis, avg free, and msconfig.


if that leaves ANYTHING behind, something is more seriously wrong than is worth dealing with and its time to reinstall or repair the OS
 
Sometimes a simple reinstall isnt the answer, and repairs dont work most of the time, in my experience. If a client has a ton of information that they need, and have no manner of backup (happens all the time), then you cant really just reinstall. You can make the system usable until they can get it backed up, or just clean it all up, get it back to where it should be without reinstalling. reinstalls are not the answer for everyone. (now, i dont normally have that problem, as all of my current clients are pretty good at keeping backups.. of course, i setup their backup schemes, but they are good about it, so if something like that happens, i just reformat and replace their system with a clone I took of their system when it was functioning like it should be (basic system files and such, all of my clients have backup drives with all of their personal information, so i dont clone that stuff, i actually have them back it up, get rid of it all, then clone the drive, then show them how to move the data back.. funny thing is, I STILL get called when they lose something, and need to get it off of their backup, even after i have shown them how to use it.)
 
Or you can back their data up to a thumbdrive, reformat, then restore.

People don't take heed to something if they don't have a vested interest - i.e. having lost something as result of not backing up, not "almost losing something"
 
depends on how much data. I dont have any clients that have less than 100gb of pictures, or music, or movies. Most of my clients are artists in some way shape or form. Backups are a must for them. Im trying to setup a NAS at my house where i can store monthly backups for them as well, if they dont want their own backup solution, but that will take a bit of money for me to start.
 
Yeah, well then I just copy to my external HD and copy it back. I have a spare 160GB UATA that I toss in my enclosure, and I'll run a vscan on the data it before I restore it.
 
that does work as well, at times, again, depends on what you have handing. I have enclosures kicking around, but no extra drives at the moment, so for me, that doesnt work well. And most of the time, It is quicker for me to just fix the problem rather than doing a backup and reinstalling on a new customers system.
 
I won't do too much before telling the client i'm wiping it. i spent 10 hours in scans over two appts a few years back, and vowed never to do that again.

besides, you never know what else is popping around, and as long as you determine it's software/OS, i'd rather free myself of headaches.
 
hope you got paid by the hour for that one.. I tend to work with quite a bit of linux/OS X customers, so I dont normally have to deal with virus as much as screwy configuration files because something was instaled wrong, or configured wrong, by someone else, so I end up going in to fix issues like that. Windows boxes are almost always just virus issues that one of my scanners get, but i normally pull the hard drive, put it in an external, and run the scan in a windows VM off of my macbook.
 
I'm having a weird problem on this customers WinXP computer. None of the programs are opening, even in safe mode. I've tried running them from the run command and they still dont open. You can see the hour glass for a few seconds, then disappear. What do you suggest?
 
What other problems did they tell you they were experiencing?

Can you get into Add/Remove Programs to look for suspect apps?

Do you have an AV CD you can boot to?
 
DigitalMP said:
What other problems did they tell you they were experiencing?

Can you get into Add/Remove Programs to look for suspect apps?

Do you have an AV CD you can boot to?
Click to expand...


Pretty much all the aps dont start, except for IE. I can get to control panel but ad/remove programs doesn't pop up. I can access my thumb drive but can't run any programs from it either.
 
I'm not a janitor. I don't clean up pc's. I'll back their files up and reinstall a fresh copy of their OS though.
 
Windows CD + a usb drive for backup is about all I use now.

I got so tired trying to clean spyware and viruses that its just wipe and reinstall.
 
zombeh said:
Pretty much all the aps dont start, except for IE. I can get to control panel but ad/remove programs doesn't pop up. I can access my thumb drive but can't run any programs from it either.
Click to expand...

If you can't even run apps in safe mode, it seems your only option is to either boot from an AV CD and run a scan, or back up data files and reformat. Don't spend 10 hours on it...
 
DigitalMP said:
If you can't even run apps in safe mode, it seems your only option is to either boot from an AV CD and run a scan, or back up data files and reformat. Don't spend 10 hours on it...
Click to expand...

I've never made an av boot disc surprisingly. How do i do that?
 
well i just re-installed the OS, but does anyone know a way i could of fixed it without a reinstall?
 
zombeh said:
well i just re-installed the OS, but does anyone know a way i could of fixed it without a reinstall?
Click to expand...

There probably wasn't any way. Since you weren't able to actually run any programs, I don't see how you could have done anything to fix it.
 
Why try to fix when you can wipe and reinstall and unless they want to do it themselves you can backup their files for a nice $$ profit.
 
Why try to fix when you can wipe and reinstall and unless they want to do it themselves you can backup their files for a nice $$ profit.
 
Destonomos said:
Why try to fix when you can wipe and reinstall and unless they want to do it themselves you can backup their files for a nice $$ profit.
Click to expand...

Because a lot of the time, people would rather keep their existing Windows installations.
 
Zero82z said:
Because a lot of the time, people would rather keep their existing Windows installations.
Click to expand...

Whatever saves me time and headaches is what goes down.

Save your Windows install with 6 hours of work? How much are you going to charge them?

Wipe it, reinstall it, hook it up in 2.5-3 hours for 125?

I'll take plan B. When doing PC repairs, you can only charge so much when there are $400 boxes on the market, and sleep well at night.
 
Depends. If they know you charge 50 an hour, and they say "I dont want a reinstall", thats their problem, so long as you explain how long it could take. I dont mind spending 6 hours on a fix at that point.

As for the guy wondering if there was anything else he could have done, you could have pulled the drive, put it in an external enclosure, and scanned it from a different computer. Or you could have tried the command-line version of ClamAV. Or a boot disk with an AV on it.
 
I use a 4 gig flash drive with a copy of windows installed to it, a copy of windows on it and a host of programs, most mentioned here.

I usually try to boot into another OS and run all the cleaners and scanners on the machine as well as boot into safe mode and run them all. If that doesn't do it right away I just back up the documents and settings folder and just do a dirty install over top of the old one and copy the documents and settings back.

Then install AVG/Spybot and other system protection programs and explain what they do and how to use them so that it doesn't happen again.
 
I use all free programs. But before I do anything I make a ghost image of the PC. Then I use:

Avast Anti-Virus (to kill viruses)
Spybot Search and Destroy (to kill spyware and adware)
Ad-Aware (to kill spyware and adware)
Hijack This (to get a full system registry report)
CCleaner (to clean out temp files and fix empty registry keys)
Defraggler (to defrag)
MS Config (to kill unnecessary start up apps)
Add/Remove Programs (self-explanatory)
 
I use all free programs. But before I do anything I make a ghost image of the PC. Then I use:

Avast Anti-Virus (to kill viruses)
Spybot Search and Destroy (to kill spyware and adware)
Ad-Aware (to kill spyware and adware)
Hijack This (to get a full system registry report)
CCleaner (to clean out temp files and fix empty registry keys)
Defraggler (to defrag)
MS Config (to kill unnecessary start up apps)
Add/Remove Programs (self-explanatory)
 
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