FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  379 (02/09/03)

Q

I recently received an attachment called ‘details.pif’, from a trusted source and so I ran it.  It appeared not to do anything until I logged off my dial-up
connection.  Now, my PC continually tries to connect to my ISP, only stopping when it eventually connects.  I've run my anti-virus program and both Ad-aware and Spysweeper, but they don't find anything.  ‘Rasautou.exe’ appears in the task manager with each attempt to connect.  How can I stop it, disable or delete it?
John Bancroft, via email

A

You have been caught by the infamous Sobig F email worm, which has been plaguing the net for the past few weeks. Although serious the infection was prevented from being a lot worse by vigilant ISPs and most PC users following the simple rule of not opening unsolicited attachments. It sounds as though you haven’t updated your anti-virus software lately in which case you should do it now and run a complete scan. It might also be worth downloading and running a Sobig F removal tool, you can download one free from: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/ venc/data/w32.sobig.f@mm.removal.tool.html

Q

I have just had my first encounter with Windows XP, and I am disturbed to find that I cannot open a DOS window. I have important programs, which are only DOS compatible and I wonder how I could overcome this problem? Should I reluctantly migrate back to an older operating system or is there a shareware program, which will create a DOS window?

D. E. Launchbury

A

Our old friend DOS is still lurking behind the scenes in XP, it's just well hidden. You can call up a DOS type window by typing 'cmd.exe' (sans quotes) in Run on the Start menu, or you can start your PC in DOS mode using an old Windows 98/ME/SE StartUp disc; simply choose 'Command Prompt Only, from the menu that appears.

Q

Is there any way I can stop the unbelievably irritating MSN Instant Message pop-ups? I even get messages from a site that offers me software -- which naturally I must pay for -- to stop their own pop-ups! I find this situation absolutely barking and refuse to pay for any software to stop these morons. Help!

Ian Robertson, Bristol

A

We’ve dealt with this one before but a steady stream of disgruntled readers prompts us to repeat the fix for this annoyance. As you may know the Windows Messenger Service (not to be confused with MSN Messenger) is built into Windows 2000 and XP is intended for administrators to send messages to network PC users; for some reason it is enabled by default and has proved a heaven sent opportunity for spammers who have the system to deluge XP users with unwanted adverts. There’s certainly no need to pay for anti-Spam software so assuming that your PC is not connected to a network (in which case you should contact your administrator) you can switch it off using the following simple procedure. Go to Start > Control Panel and double-click Administrative Tools. Double-click on Services and scroll down to Messenger, double-click Messenger, under Service Status select Stop and in the Startup Type drop-down menu select Disabled.

Q

I recently had a second CD drive installed, so that I could record and copy discs. I was able to copy and back-up a good number of my files, and also copied one music CD but now for some reason I get the following error message. "The Directcd.exe File is linked to missing export advap132.dll:setentriesinacia" 

I can no longer access the original CD drive, nor the new one. I suspect that either myself, or one of my daughters, must have done something silly; the person who installed the drive is away on a long vacation. Any ideas?

Tom Armstrong

A

Whenever you see messages relating to missing or corrupt files with the extension ‘dll’ (dynamic link library), nine times out of ten the solution is to uninstall then re-install the application concerned, which in your case would be Direct CD, which will be on the installation disc that came with your CD recorder.

Q

I had a memory card reader installed on my Windows 98 PC. The card reader was not operating reliably, so I got the supplier to replace it with a Hama 46969 TravelDrive USB card reader. I uninstalled the original card reader program via Windows Add/Remove facility, and installed the new one via the disk that came with it. When the PC rebooted I got an error message saying “Error message C:\Windows\system\ShellExt\MSDServ.dll.  The system cannot find the file specified.” What can I do about the error message?

Brenda Chopping

A

You did everything by the book but for some reason the uninstaller on your old card reader program removed the file mentioned in the error message, but left behind a reference to it in the Windows Registry. The simplest solution is to use a Registry ‘cleaner’, which is a utility that seeks out and removes redundant entries. Have a look at Regseeker, which is easy to use and has a backup facility, just in case something should go wrong. The program is freeware and can be downloaded from: www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm

Q

Recently I installed few screen savers, now I wish to remove them. I deleted the downloaded files from 'My Documents', where I stored them. But when I went to the 'display properties' and screen saver option, I found them there. Please tell me how can I delete them permanently?
Arif Khurshid

A

The files you’ve deleted from My Documents were probably just the installation programs; the actual files, which have the extension ‘.scr’ are normally stored in C:\Windows\system (in Windows 95/98/SE/ME) or C:\Windows\System32 (Windows XP). Go to Search or Find on the Start menu and type ‘*.scr’ (without the quotes), right-click on the ones you want to get rid of and select Delete then Yes/OK.