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Old July 28th 04, 06:28 PM
Gary S. Terhune
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Default Clock

Being locked out of changing the time isn't right. You should consider the
possibility that some program, either one you installed and which runs in the
background, or a malicious intruder, is causing this problem. To that end,
you're the lucky recipient (first today) of my extended advice on cleaning up
your system, including info on parasites, viruses, etc. My Clean Boot article
will introduce you to MSCONFIG, which can be used to selectively disable
background programs and see if they are affecting you problem. Note, there are
two possible clock-slowing issues in Windows machines--the BIOS battery, which
exhibits itself as loosing time while your system is shut down, and a
pure-Windows problem which shows itself as slowing while in operation, but then
correcting itself when you restart (as long as you don't use the time/date
applet to change anything.) The latter is also due to background programming and
certain other functions.

The below includes everything I think is necessary, no more, and certainly no
less. Yes, there are valid differences of opinion regarding which antivirus
software to use, but the rest of my suggestions have fairly unanimous support
among the cognoscenti. The initial suggestions go hand in hand with maintaining
a clean and secure system.

See my article, "Clean Boot--What it is and why you need it"
http://www.google.com/groups?selm=%2...GP11.phx.gb l

Because some of the more recent known invaders are capable of interfering
with the suggestions contained in the above, I suggest you also consider
first doing the following, though it may be necessary to set up a clean
boot, and even then manually kill a malicious process or two before you can
even get these accomplished. Many invaders are built to first detect and
disable protections that are in place, so that you might, for instance, have
to obtain and employ a DOS-boot antivirus like F-Prot. Repeated running of
scanners, booting back and forth from Safe Mode to Normal, or into DOS
Mode--a lot of gymnastics are often required to get to an error-free and
nasties-free condition. Once there, however, some user sanity and education,
plus regular "wetware" updating, will *keep* your system healthy.

Update your Antivirus, run a full scan. Then, if you haven't already,
obtain, update, and run any or all of the following
Trojan/Parasite/Adware/Spyware cleaners. I recommend getting and running
*all* of them. They each target slightly different things. Again, be sure
you update the definitions they are using to identify crap before running
them, each time you run them--which, depending on your surfing habits,
should be anything from once a month, to once a week, to once a day, to once
an hour if you're really into junkware sites (aka "Free goodies", game
sites, fun-places-to-be, etc.)

Tradition had it that Firewalls were generally not needed when using simple
dial-up modem connections. Alas, this is no longer the case. *Everyone*
needs a firewall! Also, I make no bones about it--Norton, McAfee and
Trend-Micro products (and probably a few others) are ABOMINATIONS!,
particularly when it comes to Win9x systems. They are massive suites that
intrude into basic functions where they simply do not need to go. For
freeware solutions, I suggest AVG or AVAST (based upon the recommendations
of others, though each has it's minor drawbacks) and ZoneAlarm Firewall. But
for really good, inexpensive, and trustworthy protection, you simply can't
beat eTrust Armor. Antivirus and Firewall combined, very non-intrusive upon
the system itself (I've *never* seen a crash caused by EZ Antivirus, and
there's hardly any impact whatsoever on Resources, etc.) eTrust is from
Computer Associates Inc.--the antivirus is a version of their corporate
product usually known as Inoculan, and they got smart recently and switched
to using a version of ZoneAlarm for their firewall.

You can get a one-year free trial of eTrust EZ Armor at
http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/. This offer was initially slated to end
this June, but has been extended through February 2005. The trial offer is
also included in at least some versions (not sure about all languages) of
Microsoft's Windows Security Update CD, an item *everyone* should own.
(However, do *not* just run the Update CD on your system without a proper
analysis of where your system stands with regard to Updates. Might do more
harm than good.) EZ Armor would normally cost $50 for the first year (a deal
in itself), and yearly renewal subscriptions only cost $25--an absolute
steal when compared with other offerings. Order the Windows Security Update
CD directly from MS, totally free, including S&H, at
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp

In addition to Antivirus and Firewall protection, I consider the following
items to be indispensable protection and clean-up utilities. My judgment is
based upon their being free, good, accurate, and safe, if handled correctly.
See, also, suggestions from MVP Mike Burgess on his site,
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/, particularly the general Windows/IE
Security page, http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/security.htm. More current
discussions of Security issues can be found at the Windows Support Center
(provided by MVP Jim Eshelman, a true Saint!) at http://www.aumha.org

(SpyBot S&D = "SpyBot Search & Destroy")

Ad-Aware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
SpyBot S&D http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download
HijackThis http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/HijackThis.exe
CWShredder http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip
Spyware Blaster http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

PLEASE! Before doing any of these, see also,
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/Darnit.htm for suggestions and cautionary
information about internet surfing, and some important hints about using the
above. ESPECIALLY, be aware that HijackThis scans result in a LOT of stuff
that you *don't* want to delete. The admonishment to save a log and show it
to an expert is critically good advice. Not following that advice can really
do some damage to your system. SpyBot S&D, too, is capable of similar
problems, especially if you change default scan settings, or "Immunize".

An additional tool that is very helpful in protecting your machine is a
HOSTS file. Microsoft MVP Mike Burgess maintain a frequently updated list of
bad sites. They may be sites that provide most of the junky advertisements
you see in other places, or sites that install spyware/adware, or that, for
whatever reason, you shouldn't allow into your system. Using the HOSTS
file, you can redirect such addresses to a site that's guaranteed will fail
to load on most machines--your own computer.
HOSTS Overview -- http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

After using it for some time, now, I also consider MVP George Geyde's HOSTS File
Manager an indispensable tool. I've been amazed at how well this one tool
stopped most of the crap from getting in in the first place. You can find it at
the bottom of this page:
http://www.mvps.org/PracticallyNerded/Software.htm

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x

"Jenny" wrote in message
...
Hi guys. My clock keeps slowing down. At the moment it is
about 6 minutes slow. I have tried to change the time but
it wont let me. I go in through control panel and it lets
me change the date and 'Daylight Saving' but not the time.
Can anyone help me resolve this or does anyone know why my
clock keeps slowing.
Thanks Jenny


 




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