How to change file to a different file type?

OS: Windows XP SP3

One of the client wants to change the file to a different file type , usually you would do this by removing the file type extension and replace it with another one. For example, if the file was music1.zip and you wanted to change to music1.rar,  you would right click on the file, select rename and remove the “.zip” and add in the “.rar”

In cases where the file extension does not appear, would you need to the following:

1. Identify the current type of file, right click on the file and select properties
   
2. Open My Computer and select Tool on the top window – Folder Options… – File Types Tab
3. Scroll down the file type that matches the current type of file and click on the Advanced Button
   
4. Checkmark “Always show extension” and click Ok
   
5. The file extension should now appear and you can change the file type to whatever file type you want.

Mac OS X Lion will not sync to Exchange 2003

A client who recently bought a new iMac wanted to have the lion mail sync with his exchange server. However, since the exchange server is running exchange 2003, it will not sync. With the new OS X update, Apple has decided to use the new EWS technology for syncing instead of activesync.

Since EWS technology is only in Exchange 2007 and higher, the only work around this would be to download Office for Mac 2008.

Office for Mac 2008 is a older version of Office for Mac,  the Microsoft entourage 2008 will work with exchange 2003, allowing you sync with all your contacts/Email/Calendar.

For anyone who is thinking about getting a mac computer for their business, please make sure you have at least updated the exchange server to 2007 SP1 and above.

Slow Excel load time after Microsoft Office File Validation Add-In for Office 2003 and 2007

How the problem first started…

1. User reported opening excel files on Office 2003 with a 2-3min load time that did not happen before
2. the excel file has very large, about 1.3mb in size with multiple sheets
3. I remember installing some office add-in updates for Windows prior to this issues.
4. a quick google search shows that other users are having the same issues.
5. One of the solutions offers was applying the update http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570623
6. The update only partially solve the issues, I had to do a Excel detect and repair to completely solve the issue.

Problem using Widnows 7 to VPN into Windows 2003 Servers

Since windows 7 has been so well received, some of my clients has already switched over to windows 7 for their personal computers. However, one of the client had a problem with VPN using Windows 7. According to the client, he was able to VPN into the network without any problems, however, he was  unable to perform a remote desktop connection to his computers. Here is how I solved this problem

1. Make sure Windows 7 is up to date on all the updates
2. Right click on VPN connection and select properties
3. Click on the “Security” tab
4. Under Type of VPN, click and select “Point to Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)”
   
5. Click on the “Networking” Tab
6. Uncheck “Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)
   
7. Press Ok
8. Done

With these setting changes, you should be able to perform a remote desktop connection with connected to a VPN.

Desktop Wallpaper Error

One of my clients had this weird problem today, his wallpaper wasn’t showing up on the desktop. Looking at his desktop, there appears to be a “X” icon on the top left on the screen. Its basically the same icon as a image error icon. Here is how I fixed the problem

1. at first I thought it might be a video card error or a drive update might be required however, when I logged into an administrator account the default desktop wallpaper was able to load just fine.
2. Check the image file and make sure it was not corrupted, load different default wallpaper image and still continue to have the same problem
3. Compared the wallpaper setting on the administrator and user’s
4. Noticed the position of the wallpaper was set to Center on the administrator and stretch on the users
5. Change the wallpaper to a Center position and problem was fixed!

Antivirus 2009 Malware

One of my client recently got a malware called antivirus 2009. I am sure people working in the IT industries have head of this nasty malware, there are many different type of strains of antivirus 2009 malware. The one I had to face today was a nasty one. Here is what happened and how I removed it

1. I had to use logmein to remotely support the client, luckily I had removed local administrator access from this user or else it might of done more damage
2. Desktop had antivirus 2009 ad all over
3. Task Manager showed many unknown process and antiviru2009 process running that I could not end task
4. www.google.com search results were being misdirected to harmful websites
5. Manually type in the website to work around this problem
6. Tried installing malwarebytes, was able to install it but failed to start. It looks like the malware has prevented  malwarebytes from running
7. Tried installing hijack this, same thing, was not able to run
8. Combofix, this is a special anti-malware tooled from bleepingcomputers they are very effective against different types of malware.
9. Rename combofix to ‘a’  before running just in case the malware tried to prevent combofix from running
10. Finished running combofix and restart the computer
11. Combofix was able to remove most of the antivirus 2009 but just in case lets run malwarebytes again
12. Ran malwarebytes , performed a quick scan and removed additional malware.
13. Ran malwarebytes full scan and remove additional malware.
14. Remove system restore
15. Removed Symantec Antivirus and installed Microsoft Security Essentials (free)
16. Defrag and Ran CCleaner
17. Microsoft Update
18. Change IE settings back to default
19. Computer was running perfectly normal and faster than before!

It is important to always make sure IE setting are changed to default, many malware make changes to your IE setting , proxy setting so your likely to get infected again. Make sure to delete your infected system restore and create a new one once you disinfect the computer.

When Malware attacks Service.exe Status Code -1073741482

One of my client came to me with an laptop that seems to auto shutdown when getting into the log-in screen. When turning on the computer, once the laptop gets into the log-in screen, an error message pop-up. “‘C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\services.exe’ terminated unexpectedly with status code -1073741482.The system will now shut down.”  This is followed by a 30 second count down that will eventually shut down the computer. I was unable to log-in at all.  The following are the steps I took to investigate and solve the problem.

1. Boot into safe mode- on a dell laptop, press F8 after turning on the computer and select Safe Mode with Network
2. Tried to install Malewarebytes, was unable to start the problem, same thing happen with other various anti-maleware programs.
3. Services seems to constantly start and stop, explorer.exe was constantly crashing.
4. At this point it looks like the maleware is either corrupt or deleted important system files from the system.
5. Boot the computer using the XP CD. (It would be best to have a windows cd that has the same Service pack as the one your computer is currently on, if not you will need to reinstall the service pack)
   You may need to change the boot order in the system BIOS so the CD boots before the hard drive. Check your system documentation for steps to access the BIOS and change the boot order.
6. When you see the “Welcome To Setup” screen, you will see the options below
   This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
   Windows XP to run on your computer:

   To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

   To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

   To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

7. Press enter , do not choose “To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R“,Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows installations.
8. Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair. If Repair is not one of the options, END setup
9. Windows will start copying and rewriting all the necessary files  and reboot
10. When windows reboot again, do not press any cd to boot from the cd when the message appear.
11. Follow through the installation process
12. You should be able to log in now, I went ahead and install maelwarebytes and did a fast scan
13. found various malwares, trojans and backdoor went ahead and remove them and reboot
14. I usually start with a fast scan, if I find something I would usually follow up with a full scan
15. Perform a full scan, remove any malware objects and reboot
16. Reset Internet Explorer browser setting to default
17. Run windows updates and install any security updates (In my case since the computer was original a SP3, and the windows CD was a SP2, I had to reinstall SP3)
18. Update Flash player, Java

At this point I did another fast scan to make sure everything was fine and did a hijackthis scan. Everything looked good! I went ahead a did a performance tune up to make the computer faster and remove/delete system restore in case there were additional maleware in the system restore files.

Tools Used

• Malewarebytes -www.malwarebytes.org
• Hijackthis- http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/