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MICROSOFT REGCLEAN HANGS IN WINDOWS 95 AFTER INSTALLING IE5.01
Internet Explorer 5 sometimes installs a bad registry key in Windows 95 that causes Microsoft RegClean to freeze. You can fix the problem easily enough with a little Registry editing though. Here's what you can do:
- Close all open programs.
- Launch Regedit (go to Start/Run and type regedit and press Enter).
- From the toolbar, click the Edit pull-down menu and select Find....
- In the Find dialog box, type the following exactly as you see it below (you may also highlight the text, then copy and paste it into the Find box).
{00000201-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}
- Click the Find Next button. If the search finds it, click on the + boxes to expand the key path.
- Look for the HELPDIR key. If you see (default) "???o", that's your problem, it's an invalid path.
- Highlight (default) and then right-click and select MODIFY.
- Type in the following text exactly:
C:\PROGRAM FILES\COMMON FILES\SYSTEM\ADO\
- This problem is limited to Windows 95, Windows 98 doesn't have HELPDIR on that key. You may also be able to delete the HELPDIR key, but be sure you have a Regsitry back-up and know how to restore it before doing so. However, I do not recommend this.
- If you still have a problem with ReagClean, it with the /L parameter (type REGCLEAN /L at the Command Prompt). When RegClean runs, it will create a log file.
- When RegClean freezes again, you will then need to find the LOG file it created.
- Click once on a blank spot of the toolbar and press F3.
- Type regclean.log and search your entire hard drive (including subfolders).
- Once you find it, make a note of its location, launch Wordpad, click File/Open... and navigate to regclean.log to open it.
- Now scroll to the bottom. The last entry should be the problem key, the one that caused RegClean to lock up.
- Armed with this information, find it in the registry and look at the contents. An invalid key will look something like the one you edited as described above. It will look something like "???o".
- Compare the suspect key to similar keys on either side of it and with a little deductive reasoning you should be able to determine what a valid entry should be.
- Remember, you can always back up a Registry key before editing it by clicking the Registry item from the pull-down menu and then selecting Export Registry File.... That should allow you to try a well thought out change which you can restore (by double-clicking the REG file you exported) easily.
CHANGE THE SYSTEM FONT IN WINDOWS 2000
This could have gone in the Enhancements section, but I think of it as a correction, a feature that Microsoft failed to include which leaves one of the standard interface modifications incomplete.
As you know, you can change the Shell font from the default Tahoma, using the Appearance tab in the Display applet (right-click the desktop, choose Properties from the context menu and then click the Appearance tab). However, the System font, MS Sans Serif, which is used for dialogs boxes, tabs and other system text will remain unchanged. You can change this easily with a quick Registry edit.
- Close all open programs.
- Launch Regedit (go to Start/Run and type regedit and press Enter).
- Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes
- You can edit the string value in the right pane. Look for MS Shell Dlg and make sure that the information for that line reads MS Sans Serif in the Data column.
- Right-click on MS Shell Dlg and select Modify.
- In the Edit String dialog box, highlight MS Sans Serif in the Value data: field (which should be the only editable field in this dialog box) and delete it. Type the name of the font you would rather use in its place. Make sure that the name you type is the exact font name that you see in the left column for that font in the system Fonts folder.
- Reboot and ...
- Enjoy!
This trick may work in Windows 95 and 98 (and, for that matter, WinME as well), but I've not tested it in those operating systems, so consider yourself warned. If it does work, I'd appreciate it if you could drop me a line and let me know the details so I can update this blurb.
THE IRC BOT DETECTOR
Recently, Steve Gibson's GRC.com was the subject of repeated Denial of Service attacks which brought down his web site. This chronicle of the events makes for fascinating reading. More importantly, your computer could be infected with one of the dreaded Zombies without your even knowing it. You can download a tool for detecting Zombie bots on your system, courtesy of Jason Levine.
If you find one of the IRC bots on your system, delete it and look into some improved security measures for your computer and computing practices.
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