March 2012

What if Regedit won't run?

Submitted by Ken Dwight on

When removing malware from an infected computer, the experienced IT support technician normally uses the Windows utility program Regedit to remove malicious entries from the Registry.  But what do you do if Regedit won't run?

Many viruses and rogue security programs will delete or corrupt regedit.exe or block your ability to run it.  They may use many techniques to produce this result.  This article will suggest various alternatives that should solve the problem.

Old (MS-DOS) Commands Never Die

Submitted by Ken Dwight on

Most computer users today have never seen, or had occasion to use, the Command Prompt.  Originally known as the MS-DOS Prompt, this was our only way to communicate with the Operating System and the Directory and File structure before Microsoft Windows® converted us all to the Graphical User Interface.

Most IT Support technicians are at least aware of this arcane, text-based interface and use it on rare occasions.  But to effectively deal with today's sophisticated malware, the savvy tech must be intimately familiar with at least a dozen of these commands.