A few months ago I ran a software giveaway in exchange for some survey answers. There were two questions that came up often amongst the technicians and one of them was:

“Where do you draw the line between suggesting rebuilding a PC or suggesting that they go buy a new one?”

The other question is:

“At what point in the repair cycle do you make the choice to format & reinstall the OS and the applications?”

The answer to both of these questions are identical.
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I have many clients who have placed passwords on their Outlook PST files to prevent family members or employees from accessing their emails. However, if they ever forget that password they have a problem – this is where PstPassword comes in.

PstPassword is a small, freeware and portable application designed to recover the password from a locked .PST file. The password encryption in Outlook is very weak and for each password protected PST file there will be 3 different passwords that could open it. One of them may be the original password that the client entered, or all 3 might be different to the original.
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Guest Post by Lisa Hendrickson, owner of Call That Girl, 15 years experience of supporting client computer issues.

For many months now, I have been in need of an assistant, but just couldn’t make the decision as each week business was still “up and down”. It’s a struggle as an entrepreneur to make that decision.
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“.NET Framework Cleanup Utility” is a small, portable and freeware application designed to remove selected versions of the .NET Framework from a computer. It is intended to be used when the install, uninstall, repair or patching of the .NET Framework will not work correctly.
When this cleanup tool is run, it will remove the files, directories, registry keys and Add/Remove Programs entries that make up the .NET Framework.

This application has some nice features such as allowing you to choose which version of .NET Framework you want to remove. It also has a silent/unattended mode which I am sure the Technibble scripters will enjoy. Be sure to read the readme.txt file as it contains some handy usage information plus the download links for the .NET Framework installers.
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There is a common trap that Computer Technicians can fall into. It happens when the Computer Technician goes onsite to the clients location, removes a virus and gets paid. Then, a week later the clients computer is reinfected with a virus and they expect the technician to come over and remove it free of charge.

Now, if the Computer Technician didn’t do their job correctly the first time, then they should go back and fix it for free. However, often the virus is a new infection and is not related to the first one, yet we are still expected to fix it for free.

The way to avoid this issue (assuming you did your job correctly the first time) is by managing the clients expectations and not speaking in absolutes. Let me explain.
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Guest Post by Lisa Hendrickson, owner of Call That Girl, 15 years experience of supporting client computer issues.

For some people, working in the corporate world as IT support, gives them enough foundation to start up a business. Others who are the friend/neighborhood tech feel they have what it takes to start up a repair shop. Some are self taught, some are book educated. No matter what your background is, you have to be sure of a few things before you go into business for yourself. Here are a few tips to read before considering going on your own.
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SUPERAntiSpyware is an anti-spyware/anti-malware product that is well known amongst computer technicians. SAS just got even better by officially releasing a portable version of their product. The portable version is almost identical to the installed version in the way that it deals with malware, except that it exists as a single, portable file.

When you download the portable version from the official website, you will probably notice it has a strange file name like “SAS-4325.COM”. The reason for this is because the last 4 numbers of the file name are random. This helps prevent some of the nastier infections from closing SAS Portable when it runs.
SAS Portable also comes as a .COM file instead of a .EXE file because many infections will try to prevent .EXE files from running, so it has those bases covered.

SUPERAntiSpyware Portable is free, updates easily and is definitely a tool you will want to keep on your USB drive to deal with malware infections.
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In the past I have shown you my onsite technician gear. Now, I would like to share my work process with you to give you an idea on how you could start or possibly improve yours. Of course, I am not saying this is how you must do it since everyone has their own procedures. This is just a method that I have refined over the years to help me eliminate any potential issues.
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The malware world is changing. It’s getting smarter.
In fact, some infections will detect that you have launched an anti-malware tool such as MalwareBytes and close it down as soon as you open it, which makes your job much harder. This is the exact situation Rkill is designed for.

Rkill is a small, freeware and portable tool designed to terminate active malware processes allowing you to use other removal tools. Rkill is made by a Microsoft MVP “Lawrence Abrams” and is available in 4 different extensions. An .EXE, .COM, .SCR and a .PIF file.
The reason why Rkill comes in 4 different versions is because some malware will block .EXE files in an attempt to prevent you from running other malware removal tools, so this gets around that problem.

I tested this tool on a virtual machine which I had infected with a fake antivirus and Rkill killed the malicious processes without any problems. Of course, I then had to delete the malicious files manually as this is not a malware removal tool, but a malware process killing tool. It just stops the malware from running right now, allowing you work your computer technician magic.
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Microsoft has tightened up security in Windows Vista and 7 by disallowing access to critical system files using a Unix like permission system. While this is great for the average user because it helps protect them from viruses and themselves preventing them from being able to accidentally delete a critical system file. It isn’t so great for a Computer Technician who may need to access those areas.

Even if your user account is set to be an Administrator, there are many files and folders you cannot access including something as simple as changing the Start Menu under Windows 7. If you try, you will get an “Access Denied” error because SYSTEM owns this folder, not your user account. While there is a round-about way to assign yourself permission of these files, its a little long winded.

This is where Rizone’s “Take Ownership” Extension comes in. It is a small, freeware and portable application that will add a “Take Ownership” option to your right click context menu. Just right click on the file or folder you want to be able to access, and choose “Take Ownership” and it will assign you the necessary rights.
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