Topic: Can't launch web browser

[soulboy]

Thought I should report that some progress is finally being made - last night, I successfully loaded (and ran) both Spybot and Ad Aware, and after cleaning out all the cr*p, I was able to use IE again (thanks for your comments on Mozilla,
think I'll give it a try).

Also managed to install Zone Alarm, so my PC should be a lot more secure now than it was - have also dumped Kazaa, but not WinMX yet.  Any comments on file sharing s/w?

One of the guys here at work reckons I should also run and install a registry fixer/cleaner - any comments/recommendations on this would again be gratefully received.

Thanks for all the help so far!!  

- Soulboy

[Simon]

Glad you're getting there, Soulboy.    You'll now see the benefits of keeping your PC spyware free.  I would recommend you download Spyware Blaster, as it will help to stop future spyware from clogging up your system, and continue to run Ad Aware and Spybot occasionally.

As far as file sharing utilities go, I think WinMX is probably the only one you will find which doesn't contain spyware / adware, or any other nasties.  Kazaa is one of the main culprits of bunging up your PC with spyware, and is rife with trojans and viruses too.  WinMX may not be the quickest, but in my opinion, it's one of the safer options.  Of course, you still need to check anything you download for viruses.

The only Registry Cleaner I have used is within Norton System Works.  There are a few about, but you have to be careful with them, as they can sometimes remove things they shouldn't.

 

[soulboy]

OK, Simon - I'll have to give some consideration to Spyware Blaster too, but will be careful with any registry cleaning stuff.  Don't suppose you know anything about System Mechanic 4 (free download from the link below)?

http://www.download.com/?tag=ft

One other thing that I forgot to mention in my earlier msg. is concerning the Windows Update CD I rec'd from MS a few weeks back - I think this should run automatically when inserted into the CD drive, but, (guess what?), it fails to do so in mine.  Have I got this wrong, or do I have to use the disk in some other way?

Thanks once again,

- Soulboy  (getting married on Friday!!)  

[Simon]

I assume you mean the Security Update CD (Feb 2004)?  If you load the CD but it doesn't start, open My Computer, right click the CD Rom drive, select Open, then double click the Autorun.exe, which should fire it up.

You can also do Start > Run and type in 'D:\autorun.exe' (without the quotation marks), where 'D' is your CD Rom drive.