MSCONFIG and a Problem.....

[porpoise]

I have had a major problem recently, thinking it was sasser and maybe mydoom.
I have finally after 6 hours last evening and 3 hours this morning traced that I had a dialer.exe installed which was causing the problem, of course as I am on cable modem it couldn't dial. I have now run msconfig and found 4 entries which are blank in the start up item and command list, although they are ticked to start up. Can I safely remove the ticks and stop them starting? as they appear to be nothing ? Any help / advice would be appreciated.

[Nemesis]

They may detect that that they aren't running and reinstall ..

Try running Spybot and Adaware, to see if they will get rid of it completely.

[jamesclarke555]

Originally Posted by porpoise

I have had a major problem recently, thinking it was sasser and maybe mydoom.
I have finally after 6 hours last evening and 3 hours this morning traced that I had a dialer.exe installed which was causing the problem, of course as I am on cable modem it couldn't dial. I have now run msconfig and found 4 entries which are blank in the start up item and command list, although they are ticked to start up. Can I safely remove the ticks and stop them starting? as they appear to be nothing ? Any help / advice would be appreciated.

Yes, as long as the start-up items are not vital, such as a firewall etc, you're fine

[Richard M]

Originally Posted by porpoise

I have had a major problem recently, thinking it was sasser and maybe mydoom.
I have finally after 6 hours last evening and 3 hours this morning traced that I had a dialer.exe installed which was causing the problem, of course as I am on cable modem it couldn't dial. I have now run msconfig and found 4 entries which are blank in the start up item and command list, although they are ticked to start up. Can I safely remove the ticks and stop them starting? as they appear to be nothing ? Any help / advice would be appreciated.

I have some of these but they are related to my soundcard.
You should check the path and maybe search Google for the filename.

[ntl customer]

Download a utility called startup control panel.

With that you should be able to remove anything permanently.

MS Config sucks - it is not designed for removing startup programs

[MetaWraith]

I recommend using a program such as StartupManger from Kissco
http://www.kissco.com http://www.startupmgr.com/

It monitors changes to the registry that cause programs to be loaded on startup.

As the current prevailing tendancy is for malware to is to write entries into the registry to ensure the nasty gets loaded on startup, if you have some sort of startupmanger running at startup then the chances that some malware will sneak in undetected are greatly reduced.

There are other StartupMangers around but Kissco's is the one I use.

[Chris W]

If you want a list of everything that appears at startup and what it does, check out www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

MB

[MetaWraith]

Originally Posted by monkeybreath

If you want a list of everything that appears at startup and what it does, check out www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php
MB

http://www.greatis.com/regrun3appdatabase.htm
Is a great source too.
Updated weekly and IMHO easier to peruse.

[porpoise]

Thank you all very much.

[greencreeper]

Spybot has a bit more informative startup list - advanced mode, in tools

[porpoise]

Thanks, I've tried numerous ideas, startuplist couldnt be accessed, regrun3appdatabase totally screwed up norton antivrus, spybot seems to be ok , fingers crossed !!!

[swoop101]

To protect from anything being put in the registry use regprotect from http://www.diamondcs.com.au/index.php?page=regprot
This will pop up a warning to ask you for permision.

[greencreeper]

Spybot's startup list has a hidden thingy on the right - explains what many of the startup items are for. Took me ages to finally notice it