Wise Worm Blogs » Windows XP

Removing “Use the web service to find the correct program” Dialog

Mark — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:17:43 +0000

Did you noticed that every time you open file with unknown extension or file type, it opens this dialog box:

Chances are, if the software is not installed then that dialog box wouldn’t make any difference. It would even improve you productivity if you could skip that single step every day.

Yes, you heard it right, you can skip that dialog box forever. There are 2 ways to do it, by importing registry entries or by manually modifying the registry.

Below are the steps by importing registry entries:
1. Download the disable-open-file.reg to disable the dialog
2. Download the enable-open-file.reg to enable the dialog

Below are the steps by manually modifying the registry
1. Go to the following path using Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
2. Add a new DWORD 32bit with a value name “NoInternetOpenWith” and set the value to 1 to disable the dialog box or 0 to enable the dialog box.

I hope this makes windows less annoying for every day use.

Removing Conficker/Downadup Virus

Mark — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 01:32:48 +0000

Conficker (A.K.A. Downadup) virus is a computer worm that does irritating things to your computers. Although it doesn’t destroy your operating system, but it does so many things to a point that your computer becomes too slow to be usable.

The worm takes advantage of a bug in Windows that’s why it is able to infect a computer by just going through the network. You can also get infected through memory cards or USB thumb drives.

At the moment, it seems that infections of this worm from USB or memory cards were very rare and most of the infections we saw were coming from network.

To get rid of the worm, please follow these easy steps:

Download the Microsoft MSRT* which can be downloaded from this link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD724AE0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displaylang=en
Run the Microsoft MSRT* and follow the steps of the tool until it is complete
Run your favorite anti-virus software and do a full and complete scan of your hard drives for full removal of traces and prevent further infections

*MSRT = Malicious Software Removal Tool

Updated on March 24, 2009

Thanks George for pointing out another tool from Symantec. Here is to reiterate that another option and add it to our recommended tools for removing Conficker Worm. Below is the link to download:
http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2009-011316-0247-99

Slow 3G Connection Fix for Windows

Mark — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:15:58 +0000

Are you using 3G Modems such as Huawei E220, Sierra Air Card, and others? I’m pretty sure that you can’t open some of the web sites. You can test this by going to http://support.microsoft.com and see if you could open the site.

Some people experience very slow overall internet connection and you’re not reaching the published speed of your 3G provider.

Now, I have good news for you. It’s a bug and it can be fixed. It’s a registry tweak that will adjust the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) of Windows that’s just right for 3G connection. In layman’s term, it sets the maximum data it can sends at a time.

Just download this registry file http://rapidshare.com/files/209179082/PPP___Tunnel_MTU.reg and merge it with your registry.

By the way, this only works for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista.