Help with my PC

[Guest mike-oh]

I'm calling on the collective genius that is MoDaCo to help me out here.

Upon starting my system (98s/e), my system resources is around 30% free, hitting control alt delete brings up a list of a load of shite running in the background only a few of which i can account for. I've a feeling that years of installing and uninstalling shite has left a legacy everytime my machine boots up.

How do i find the offending articles (in the registry?) to blast em off my system or to prevent them from loading on startup?

Cheers guys (and maybe the occasional gal) :)

I'll give you the list;

MSN Messenger - obvious

Explorer - close this and things start to die as you know

Ctfmon - ?

Gmt - possibly some failed software to sync with GMT clock ?

Cconnect - Correct connect for NTL broadband

Tblmouse - graphic tablet i think

Whagent - ?

Ud - United devices cancer research software

Ud_1396140 - ditto

Ud_ligfit_release - ditto

Cmesys - ?

Wmencagt - ?

Loadgm - ?

Wcescomm - Somat to do with active sync?

Win32info - ?

Whsurvey - ?

Systray - pretty vital

Mdm - ?

Hpztsb07 - Possibly somat to do with my HP printer?

[Guest Matt Kirby]

You have got some spyware on your machine - some of those programs are components of Gator. To nuke it get Ad-Aware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/>here.

For more info on what the other programs do have a look at http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.htm>this website (note- it does have an annoying habbit of launching links in a separate window).

[Guest mike-oh]

Cheers!

What's this Gator crap?

Should i be concerned?

[Guest Matt Kirby]

Gator is installed by software that is "ad-supported"- it's the component that delivers the ads that you see when using the program.

It's called spyware because it tracks which ads you have seen, and the company is seen as being slightly sneaky in what it does.

If you remove it the software that installed it probably won't work, but there are work-arounds for most aps though - a quick Google should find what you need.

[Guest mcwarre]

If I were you I would wipe the machine and start again (after saving essential data).

This will speed up the feel of the machine by getting rid of all the sr*p one we install over the years; it also has the benefit of getting rid of spyware.

[Guest Matt Kirby]

Or get XP - pricey but worth it compared to 98SE.

[Guest mcwarre]

No real beneift to using XP on an older machine... (no doubt Mono will prove me wrong)

[Guest Matt Kirby]

If the machine will run XP you will always get benefits from upgrading – the main one is that XP is way more stable than 98.

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

ANYTHING is better than 98se :)

If your PC specs are greater than or equal to a 500mhz CPU with 256MB+ memory (you can just about get away with 128) and 2gig free hard drive space to install then XP is a very good route to take past 98...

[Guest mike-oh]

Cheers guys, it aint going that slow, it's a 1.3GHz with 512Mb ram so no probs there. I just hate rubbish running in the background, particularly unpleasent stuff like spyware.

I would like XP but think i'll just get a new system rather than a new OS once i've got a few pay cheques in :(

One thing that has cropped up, after running ad aware i lost my internet connection, it must've wiped somat from the registry, any ideas what line i should keep when it gives me a list of registry commands to quarentine? I had to restore the ad wares backup settings. Now crap is running in the background again :roll:

Thanks again,

you're all so great :)

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

What connection do you have? USB ADSL modems tend to use weird software that may have been affected...

[Guest Stuart P]

try this article - it covers all you need to know about msconfig, and also details the various registry run keys to explore.

usual warning - messing with the registry can f### your machine. back up the relevant bit before you meddle.

[Guest mike-oh]

What connection do you have?  USB ADSL modems tend to use weird software that may have been affected...

I'm using an ethernet connection, which goes via a broadband router.

Anyhow, thanks to you guys and ad aware i think i've got it nailed now. Rather than removing everything adware wanted to i went through it bit by bit and deleted what needed to be deleted without making my connection go arse over!

Cheers everyone :)

[Guest mike-oh]

try this article - it covers all you need to know about msconfig, and also details the various registry run keys to explore.

usual warning - messing with the registry can f### your machine. back up the relevant bit before you meddle.

Thanks, that's the same link as suggested above and it is very usefull. Thanks anyhow!