There is a new one according to a report from Symantec called Ramvicrype Trojan that well encrypt your files and then when you are search for a fix you find yourself directed to a website that will sell you some software to fix the problem. The search will yield the expected results because of the unique file extension the malware uses on the encrypted files.

Using the file extension – *.vicrypt it takes short order to find the solution but Symantec has published a specific utility program to help any victims hit by this trojan.

Symantec virus researcher Shunichi Imano said in a blog entry that Ramvicrype victims will see some files on the computer with a vicrypt extension.

Entering the term ‘vicrypt’ into a search engine leads us to a company offering a fix, which of course is a charged service. So, there was a reason for that file extension after all.

The security vendor has developed a Symantec Ramvicrype removal tool for victims to decrypt the files.

The one other solution is to make sure you have a current image file of your system and then restore if hit by crippling malware such as this one.

hat tip to the Security Bytes team.

Most, but not all, of these shops are held by Chinese people from the same region in China. Some of the shops are very small (hardly more than a piece of corridor), some are respectably large. Some of them are very reliable – that is, they respect the prices they publish on the site and update the products’ availability at least once a day – and some of them will try to cheat you by offering more expensive substitute items, or the items of your choice at a higher price than publicized.

Some will give you good advice as to whether your choice of parts is consistent and efficient, and some will let you fend for yourself. Some (many) of these shops also sell complete systems, and almost all will assemble a system according to your specs at no extra cost – provided you purchase all the parts from the same shop, of course.

So, how do you take advantage of this? Browse the site for the parts you need/want, print out the results, and go there, trying not to get sidetracked by the other shops’ window displays

Once you get to the selected shop, get the page you printed out and try to get the exact part at the exact price. Most of the time it works (often you don’t even need to pull out the printed page). There’s a reliability index on the site, with user comments, so you generally avoid the shops with fewer than 3 stars unless they’re the only ones with your object of desire.

Just a word of warning: if you expect a full warranty, don’t go there.

In spite of French law, the rue Montgallet shops will only grant you “manufacturer’s warranty”; i.e., if the component you purchased fails, you’re on your own trying to get an RMA from the manufacturer, if at all possible. A very few of the shops will handle it for you – generally for a fee and often with poor grace.

If you’re squeamish about warranties, there’s also a more “traditional” computer shop (a large one, akin to CompUSA and NewEgg outlets) within the area, where they’ll make you pay regular prices but provide the legal 1-year warranty on parts and systems and handle the return procedures for you. They too provide online order and delivery.

Another word of warning: despite the fact that personal checks are still a common means of payment here, the rue Montgallet shops will only take cash or credit cards – but they’ll give you a bona fide invoice even if you pay cash.

One last word of warning: if you intend to purchase big or heavy components, such as a computer case or a complete CPU or a multifunction printer, don’t expect to park your car nearby. Rue Montgallet and all the streets around it are narrow streets, with no available parking lot closer than 500 meters (1,600 ft). The only wide avenue in the area is strictly no-parking.

You’d better come prepared, with a foldable trolley, or arrange for someone to come collect you and your errands upon a phone call (this is where cell phones can be really useful). Of course the shops will not deliver, except for a few of them, and for a price. These usually also have a dedicated web site with remote-order facilities.

Once you’re familiarized with rue Montgallet and its surroundings, you can expect savings of up to 20% compared to more “traditional” computer shops. That’s where I’m going to purchase the parts for my computer upgrade overhaul next Xmas … if my wife and my banker agree, that is.

If you ever decide to come shop for computer parts in Paris, be sure to let me know about it. We can have a coffee (or some other drink) together, and I can guide you to the most reliable shops.

While the jury is still out regarding Windows 7 there has always been this standing joke about having to do a fresh install of Windows every six months or so because how unresponsive it could be. This isn’t a problem cause completely by the operating system itself but rather by all the crud that ends up in there from other applications.

It is also a problem that is exasperated by lazy developers who don’t include simple registry clean up routines in their uninstalls for their applications. So this means that after time, especially if you like checking out a lot of programs, the registry can grow to almost unmanageable size.

There’s been a lot of discussion over the years, mostly among power users and tweakers, as to the benefits – if any – of using registry cleaners. Myself I tend to fall on the side that as long as you know what you are doing by using these utilities it can’t hurt. However that is a problem in itself as not all reg-cleaners are easy to use or to understand the damage that can be done when using them.

I know that even with all my years of using computers mistakes can be made and painful ones at that. Like the time back when I was still developing software I ran a reg-cleaner and not heeding my own advise I blindly accepted all the supposed dead items that had been found and hit the Fix It button. When it completed it jobs I figured everything was nice and safe only to have Visual Studio throw all kinds of errors when I tried to start it up.

It turns out that among the registry items I had selected to fix was a whole slew of reg-keys that dealt with Visual Studio. I ended up having to re-install the program before being able to get back to work on a project.

Experiences like that one however hasn’t stopped me from checking out new utilities that work with the registry. So with that little bit of history and caveat I have a couple new registry related utilities to offer up for you to check out but with one really BIG warning – if a program that deals with the registry lets you create a System Restore point let it. As well even if it has this option you should always backup your registry before screwing around with it.

So first up here is a new reg-cleaner that I have come across – and used – that appears to to a really good job as it found dead settings that another reg-cleaner I was trying out the other days seems to have missed. The utility is called Free Windows Registry Repair 2.0 from Regsofts.com

It’s a pretty basic UI – nothing flashy or over done in the eye-candy department which really it doesn’t need to be. As you can see by the option buttons the available commands include the usual type of thing of which Restore – create a new System Restore point. Now you can use this option at anytime but the program will also create one automatically before starting any repairs.

Once you have run either the Full Scan or the Custom Scan you will end up with a pretty comprehensive list of dead reg-keys as you can see here

As always when dealing with utility programs like this that let you play around in really sensitive parts of the operating system I can’t stress hard enough – be careful. Once you have gone through the list and unchecked any items that you know are wrong or even not sure of you can click the Fix Errors button. In short order the program will remove any of the remaining checked items in the list from your registry.

Now this next utility can draw even more heated discussions among Windows users and that is the idea of optimizing your registry once you have fixed any errors, or you can even set up running it as a task to be run on a regular basis.

The utility I am referring to are those that you can use to optimize your registry. It is one thing to clean out all the garbage that might collect there over time but that really doesn’t remove the space those settings may have occupied in the registry. This is the idea behind the class of registry utilities called registry optimizers.

The one that I tested as a follow-up to the registry cleaner is called NTREGOPT by Lars Hederer and like the registry cleaner is pretty plain and straight forward. Once you have installed and run the utility you will be presented with a information dialog letting you know how much space has been saved as well as an option to reboot your computer so the changes can take effect.

I just want to end off this post by saying once again – before messing around with your register make sure that you create a System Restore point and backup your registry.

Well I would imagine that like most people, myself included, we tend to click the Next button during install once the shakes from seeing all that legalize settles down. While there is some ongoing debate over just how legal those documents the one that comes with the different flavors of Windows can be the most daunting and obtuse of them all.

So any help we can get to try and make our way through understanding the nuances of the minefield known as the Windows 7 EULA and to this end Ed Bott has spend a lot of time trying to make the obtuse a little easier to follow along with.

I have been studying the topic of Windows licensing for many years. As I have discovered, Microsoft does not have all of this information organized in one convenient location. Much of it, in fact, is buried in long, dry license agreements and on sites that are available only to partners. I couldn’t find this information in one convenient place, so I decided to do the job myself. I gathered details from many public and private sources and summarized the various types of Windows 7 license agreements available to consumers and business customers.

In his post Ed also provides a graphic breaking down the various flavors of Windows 7 and what the various licenses allow you to do [click on image for bigger view].

So if you are the least ways curious as to what you are getting yourself into when you click on the “I have read <blah><blah>” button then drop by Ed’s post and have a read through. I am sure it won’t be time wasted.

The only problem is that this is a fake online scanner virus warning notice being displayed in a browser window. According to the guys over at Sunbelt Software this is one called BlockScanner and is a variation of the Winisoft family.

Thanks for the memories Alex – I think

As the frustration mounts you wonder what could be causing the problem so you fire up Task Manager to take a look (Windows 7 users will have to click on the Show processes from all users). As you scroll through the list you suddenly spot the culprit that is jacking your CPU up to a 100%.

It’s a Windows services called Svhost.exe and it’s acting like a drunk at a free bar but the problem is that this is a required service in Windows and is actually a number of Svhosts processes all rolled into one. So how does one find out which Svhost.exe is causing all the grief and then fix the problem.

Well thanks to the crew at Addictive Tips you can now use a nice little util called Svhost Viewer (which you can download here). With the utility program you will be able to find out more information about which Svhost.exe is causing the grief and then turn it off.

As an added bonus the util is portable so you can add it to your USB tool chest of handy dandy utilities.