Extreme Tech Website and Podcast has been given the axe

Over the last few years Extreme Tech the great enthusiast website for computer builders and do it yourself guys and gals has been one of my top reads on a daily basis. Lloyd Case, Jason Cross, Joel Durham and Jim Lynch have done a great job over the last few years and they will be missed. PC Magazine which was the corporate parent (Under Ziff Davis) has been going downhill for some time. It started with the Departure of Bill Machrone former Editor in Chief a few years ago and ended up going to online only at the end of 2008.

Also gone is the Extreme Tech podcast hosted by the same crew. The podcast was quite informative but it seems PC Mag has ended all its west coast content and is going to run entirely by the east coast branch. Too bad, from what I've seen of the PC Magcast lately they could use some substance. The new "After Dark" iteration of the show is a quick fast forward, once I figure out what it is. The regular show is fine but not really for enthusiast who build their own PC's or think slightly differently from "conventional wisdom".

So it's quite disappointing to see where PC Magazine has gone, there's nothing there for me anymore, nothing I can't get in a million other places. Anandtech, Tom's Hardware, and Maximum PC all do a great job reviewing computer hardware, they don't do the "best bang for the buck" type articles in the same way Extremetech did but, they will have to do.

So to Lloyd, Jason, Joel and the rest of the Extreme Tech crew, goodbye and good luck! And thanks for all the great information over the tears. I'm sure they'll all do fine as cream rises to the top, I look forward to visiting their new sites which I'm sure will be up soon.

Troubleshooting a uninstall gone bad

Today I was doing a little maintenance on my daughters Gateway laptop, uninstalling one ant-spyware program and upgrading another to real-time protection. It seemed to go fine, I ran the Uninstall from Programs and Features in Vista and enabled the full time protection in Malwarebytes with the registration codes and rebooted. When the computer shut down I noticed it installing several updates, I didn’t think much of it at the time but when the machine restarted, the brown stuff hit the fan. I didn’t have any mouse! The trackpad was totally unresponsive so I plugged in a old USB trackball mouse, success! So I clicked on the admin account I keep on the machine and went to type my password, nope the keyboard didn’t work either. So I rebooted after plugging in my usb keyboard. Windows went through its usual routine and told me the keyboard had installed and was ready to use, except, it wasn’t. It wouldn’t work at all.

Basically I was hosed, I couldn’t run the device manager from the limited account, or do a system restore. I had to get into the admin account or I was stuck. So I did what any red-blooded geek would do I Googled “resetting a password in Vista”. I came up with usual Microsoft solution, you know the one where you use the password reset CD you made when you set up the com-pu-ter, yep that one, the one no-one ever makes! Fortunately for me I also found a reference to TRK or the Trinity Rescue Kit. TRK is a Linux based bootable CD, that can be used for resetting passwords, recovering files and a few other things relating to Windows calamities. It took a few tries, TRK is command Line based tool and none of the instructions worked exactly as they said they would. Once the CD booted normally I ended up typing winkey u admin, this started TRK searching and mounting all the files in the system. I choose 2/enter in the next dialog then typed an * confirmed with a y, and this created a new administrator account with no password.

I was able to log into the Administrator account and then began the next phase of fixing the corrupted drivers. This took a while longer than I anticipated, I tried deleting the trackpad and keyboard in Device Manager , both had the little caution signs next to them indicating a damaged or corrupted driver, rebooted but this didn’t work. I finally resolved the problem but using a restore point, fortunately you can get there with just a few clicks of the mouse. So I got lucky, the USB mouse worked and the TRK worked after some trial and error. Get the Trinity Rescue Kit here http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.php?wpid=1&front_id=12, I recommend it for your toolkit, it definitely saved my bacon.

Repair Install in Vista

I’ve heard a number of tech experts including the esteemed Mr. Lloyd Case from Extreme Tech podcast as well as others like Steve from the Podnutz podcast state that there is no way to do “repair install” in Windows Vista similar to XP, or all recent editions of Windows for that matter. Actually Microsoft has given Vista users a way to repair Vista with the install DVD, they're just hiding it a little. And although Vista doesn’t make it obvious like it used to be, it still exists.

So here’s where they're hiding it, you get a repair install in Vista by doing a “In-Place Upgrade”.

1. Start the computer boot to Vista OS.

2. Insert the Windows Vista DVD in the computer's DVD drive.

3. Use one of the following procedures, as appropriate:

If Windows automatically detects the DVD, the Install now screen appears. Click Install now.

If Windows does not automatically detect the DVD, follow these steps:

a. Click the Start Button, type Drive:\setup.exe in the start search box and then click OK.

Note: Drive is the drive letter of the computer's DVD drive.

b. Click Install now.

4. When you reach the "Which type of installation do you want?" screen, click Upgrade to upgrade the current operating system to Windows Vista. Please make sure the edition of Windows Vista is selected correctly.

I didn’t get these instructions by reading a 1000 page manual, I got them from Microsoft when I needed tech support installing SP1. I followed the instructions and it worked great for me. Of coarse if you’re doing anything this extreme make sure you have a full backup and are using the correct disk. If you have SP1 already installed you need have a SP1 disk to do what Microsoft calls an In-Place upgrade (Repair install) in Vista.

Using Malwarebytes Antispyware Program

I spend a lot of my day listening to podcasts and one of favorites is Podnutz and Podnutz Daily hosted by Steve Cherubino. In his latest episode Steve talks to Bruce Harrison lead researcher for Malwarebytes which is the best antispyware product currently out there, in my humble opinion. The biggest eye opener for me was that Bruce kind of squashed two old habits I've had for running antimalware programs, since I started using them. Bruce stated that Malwarebytes should be run in normal user mode, not safe mode as I've done for ages. He also stated that for the vast majority of users need only run the "Quick Scan" and not the deep scan which can take hours, especially on my Terabyte desktop drive. Bruce stated that Malwarebytes concentrates on folders where malware is targeted these days and ignores folders not targeted in the quick scan. He also gives good advice about running as limited user, and actually sounds pretty optimistic about the war against the cretins who create this junk. For once someone not spreading FUD, it was refreshing.

Check out Podnutz at http://podnutz.com/ and take a look at all of Steve's great content. He's a regular working stiff who still finds the time to put together an amazing amount of online audio and now video content for tech junkies interested in either fixing their own computers or people with their own computer repair business.

PC-BSD Best Unix for Beginners?

I recently downloaded and installed the latest versions of PC-BSD http://www.pcbsd.org/ and I have to say I’m extremely impressed. The install went fast (18 minutes), and it was extremely simple and straight forward. I downloaded the 7.02 version using the DVD option. Downloading using http went fairly quickly, I tried to use bit-torrent and there were simply not enough seeders to make it reasonable. During the install you get the option of adding various additional components already on the DVD including Firefox 3.0, Thunderbird, and Open Office 3.0. Based on FreeBSD version 7.0 PC-BSD is stable and secure, the GUI is the new KDE 4.1.2 and I really enjoy it. Installing new apps is far easier and straight forward than Linux in my opinion and I’m comparing it side by side with Kubuntu 8.10 which also uses the new version of KDE.

The secret to improving usability in PC-BSD is the PBI or Push button Installer or PC-BSD Installer. The .pbi extension has all the files needed to install the applications by simply double clicking the file, this is essentially the same as an setup.exe file in Windows or the .DMG file in OSX. The pbi applications can be found at http://pbidir.com/ where an great variety of programs can be had. For more hard core Unix geeks the FreeBSD Ports are also available. FreeBSD Ports are similar to the apt-get found in Linux systems and any FreeBSD Port can be downloaded with all their packages and dependencies to install them in PC-BSD. But for beginners everything you’ll need not on the install DVD will be found at pbi.dir.com site.

The default browser in KDE is Konqueror which is what the Safari browser was originally based on, it’s a very fast browser but I vastly prefer Firefox. Firefox on PC-BSD came with all the plug-ins installed to play you tube video’s and to render most web pages as they were meant to be seen.

PC-BSD seems like the perfect OS for a netbook, it’s lightweight and simple, and has great applications like the  Flock browser available which are perfect for social networking sites and cloud based email. Unfortunately a netbook isn’t in the budget right know  but I’d love to hear from anyone who’s installed it on one.

I’ve tried at least a dozen different Linux distros over the past few years and although they all worked fine, I really feel PC-BSD has surpassed them in ease of use for the  beginner. There were a few issue’s though. Although it runs flawlessly on my desktop, PC-BSD did have a few problems on my Thinkpad R60. The Ati video card isn’t supported for 3D graphics and the proprietary driver available on Linux builds doesn’t work. It also had a issue with my wifi card, although it would connect it never showed better than a 25% signal despite being in the same room as the router. The signal would also occasionally drop out only to reappear shortly afterward. So It’s worth looking through their support page and checking to see if your hardware is supported. If your trying it on a laptop with network cards not supported I’d hold off. It’s main feature is simplicity, but that will go away quickly if your hardware has know issues, in that case Ubuntu or Kubuntu might be a better choice.

Despite the few glitches I still recommend PC-BSD it’s well worth a try especially if your the sort of person who always like to try new Linux builds or are looking for a secure and stable operating system to put on your machine without shelling out for Windows.

Windows 7 UAC Security Issue

Although generally lauded, Windows 7 the next version of Windows due out later this year has a potentially dangerous security flaw built into it. User Account Control (UAC) is a security feature first introduced in Windows Vista that has been a source of complaints from many long time Windows users. UAC in my opinion was a good idea, and does improve security in Vista compared to XP. Unfortunately in the beta version of Window 7 Microsoft has changed the UI in UAC allowing users to use a slide which determines the level of annoyance UAC will operate at. At the bottom of the slide UAC is essentially turned off, at the top of the slide UAC is in "Vista" mode which notifies you anytime you try to change anything about your system. By default Win 7 leaves the setting in a position were changes to Windows does not notify the user. This makes UAC less, "in your face", and is appropriate when you are off line and setting up your new operating system. It is however far less secure than many users think they are, as two independent Windows researchers recently discovered. Rafael Rivera and Long Zheng have found that running a basic script on your computer can turn UAC off without the user knowing it. http://www.withinwindows.com/2009/01/30/malware-can-turn-off-uac-in-windows-7-by-design-says-microsoft/.This would allow the computer to be completely compromised. This seems like the type of flaw beta releases are meant to find, Microsoft feels differently however. Seems this is one of those "it's not a bug, it's a feature" routines and Microsoft feels the feature is finished, locked into the final build, as is. The fix seems obvious, they could make changing the UAC level require administrative permission which would alleviate the problem. The least's they could do is to set the default level at the highest level so unsophisticated users are less likely to be bit by this.

I understand UAC in Vista was the source of many complaints and at least one "I'm a Mac" Apple commercial which cleverly (albeit dishonestly) made fun of the feature in Vista. So Microsoft must feel it can't win on this one. Personally I felt UAC in Vista was a worthwhile and effective security measure, and I'd argue, well worth the minor inconvenience it caused. But many people complained and so in 7, Microsoft tried to allow the user to turn UAC down so people would complain less. So to a certain extent I feel users are getting what they asked for, and you can protect yourself by turning UAC all the way to the highest setting, essentially the same as the default Vista setting.

The good thing is, Microsoft can change this, at least turn the default setting to fully protected. This is what Beta testing is for and it in no way takes away from the otherwise fantastic job the Windows 7 team has done. Windows 7 is fantastic and a ton of great features which I'll no doubt upgrade all my Vista machines because I believe it worthwhile upgrade.

UPDATE

Microsoft has come through and done the right thing. They will be modifying the UAC in 7 to require administrative rights to change UAC settings. Good for them and thanks to the Windows blogging community for holding their feet to the fire on this one.

The Peasants are at the gate

Windows 7 is a hit. On January 10^th Microsoft released the public beta of their next operating system Windows 7, and to say the least it is a hit. So much in fact, it has spawned a movement of Windows enthusiasts that want it released right now. The website http://www.releasewindows7.com/ is trying to gain support for exactly that. Their argument, that Windows 7 is not only stable and well polished, but ready to be released immediately is founded on more than fanboi enthusiasm or wishful thinking. With the poor sales and the horrible perception of Windows Vista a reality, Windows 7 is being developed by an entirely different team at Microsoft. Their approach is to only include components of the OS that are fully baked for public consumption, and apparently it worked. I've yet to see a credible review of Windows 7 that doesn't give it high ratings. This is great news for Microsoft, the economy is the worst it's been in decades and the company needs a home run with the next operating system. I haven't seen this kind of enthusiasm for an OS from Microsoft since Windows 95 and it's about time.

So as of now the peasants have armed themselves with broomsticks and pitchforks, and are beating on the doors in Redmond, demanding Windows 7 be released, and the captors couldn't be happier.