March 27, 2010

PEBKAC Error

Boy is my face red tonight... The guy who built the Turing Machine mentioned on another website about a very cool machinable plastic. So I googled the name and a couple sites turned up -- one of which was a malware site. I run with a full browser window but this one site came up with a slightly smaller window for some reason. Looked hinkey so I clicked on the little [X] at the top right of that window. Turns out there were two little [X]'s - the real one at the top right of the full-size window and the: Please install this crapware on my PC button attached to the other [X]. It was the Vista Security Scanner - it keeps popping up windows claiming that it is finding various infections and prompts you to visit their website and pay to get the full version. OK - go online and get the registry entries that are needed to get rid of this puppy and go to work. Well, instead of deleting:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\.exe\shell\open\command �(Default)� = �av.exe� /START �%1″ %*
I accidental deleted:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\.exe
What this means is that when Windows tries to execute an xxxx.EXE file, it doesn't know what to do and gives me an error message. Crap! OK -- I'll fire up Regedit and fix that right back up. Wait - regedit.exe is an .exe file. Crap! I went to another system, extracted the registry branch for the part I deleted, opened up a command.com (.com, not an .exe) window, copied regedit.exe to regedit.com and everything is copacetic now.
#1) - .com extensions are a legacy from the old MS/DOS Command programs.
#2) - .exe (or Executable) programs allow for larger programs and makes multi-tasking a lot easier.
#3) - P.E.B.K.A.C. - Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair
Outside of that, this has been a very pleasant evening... Posted by DaveH at March 27, 2010 9:40 PM
Comments

As you noted the other day, having a version of Linux that can run from CD is handy for on-line banking. It can also be handy for when (not if) a PC gets bricked.

I'm not sure if it would have helped in this case, mostly because I'm not sure where you find the registry in the windows file system.

Anyways, aside from Ubuntu, Damn Small Linux is useful for this sort of thing. Here's the link:
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

Posted by: FGW at March 28, 2010 10:48 AM

I caught that one on my company laptop on the road a few weeks ago. A couple of hours on the phone and on line with a delightful lady from our IT department fixed it, but I was really disturbed about the whole thing. I could have fixed it myself had I been home and had access to my CD library of tools, but noooo.

MC

Posted by: mostly cajun at March 28, 2010 7:42 AM
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