Starting on December 15th, people will be able to purchase the standalone version of Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED and fight to help eliminate AIDS in Africa at no extra cost. Microsoft will contribute a portion of the profits to the Global Fund. To date - (PRODUCT) RED™ partners and events together have contributed more than $115 million to support Global Fund-financed programs that positively impact the lives of people affected by HIV AND AIDS in Africa. (RED)™ money provides access to education, nutrition, counseling, medical services, and the two pills a day individuals need to stay alive.

If you’re still doing your Christmas shopping and looking for a gift for someone, why not save lives too? You can pre-order Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED today from Amazon.com and choose FREE Super Saver Shipping to have it delivered before Christmas. In early 2009 – Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED will be hitting store shelves at select retailers.

The latest version of Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED includes brand new exclusive content from (PRODUCT) RED partners to personalize the desktop:  Emporio Armani clock gadget and Hallmark wallpapers, (RED)™ and Africa-inspired graphics, new (RED)™ words screen savers and more.

Here is a little preview of that exclusive content…

Africa-inspired wallpapers

 

Windows (PRODUCT) RED Wallpapers

Dell continues to be a (PRODUCT) RED partner and will be integrating the updated content into their future Dell XPS (PRODUCT) RED PCs for customers who choose Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED.

(PRODUCT) RED continues to gain momentum. Earlier this month Starbucks joined as a (PRODUCT) RED partner. (RED)WIRE™ also launched, a digital music magazine offering exclusive tracks from artists like R.E.M. and Keith Urban with a $5 per month membership fee. Half your membership fee for (RED)WIRE goes to buy medicine to keep people living with HIV in Africa alive.

College students can also take advantage of a new Ultimate Steal offer and grab a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED today for $64.95.

Manual Removal of W32/Druzgl.D Worm.

Damage Level : High/Medium
Distribution Level: Unknown/Low
No Auto Removal Tool for W32/Druzgl.D Worm
Worm Manual Removal Instructions
Recommend Removal from Safe Mode:
How to Start in Safe mode:
Restart your Computer, Press F8 Repeatedly, when your Screen turns on, Select Safe mode, press enter.
The Infected Files Can be Seen in these folders and names also Running in Tasks
End the Following Active Process Before Removal
When W32.SillyFDC is executed, it may copy itself to the following folder locations:

• %Program Files\Microsoft Common\wuauclt.exe
• %System%
• %Windir%
• %Temp%
• %UserProfile%
• %ProgramFiles%
• %SystemDrive%
• %CommonProgramFiles%
• %CurrentFolder%

Using any of the following file names with a .com or .exe extension:

1. password_viewer.exe
2. CALC or calc
3. mscalc.exe
4. startupfolder
5. config_
6. startupfolder.com
7. config_.com

How to Delete the Autorun.inf files

Go to Start > Run, type “cmd”
At the command prompt, type “cd\”, this will change to C:\
Type “attrib” (C:\>attrib), it will display files with attributes. Take note on attribute of autorun.inf.
Usually it has SHR.(System, Hidden, Read Only)

Type “attrib -s -h -r C:\autorun.inf”, it will remove System, Hidden and Read-Only attribute
Type “edit autorun.inf” it will open DOS Editor and display contents as follows

—
[autorun]
open=file.exe
shell\Open\Command=file.exe
shell\open\Default=1
shell\Explore\Command=file.exe
shell\Autoplay\command=file.exe
—

Take note of the file/path that it runs.
Ex: open=file.exe where file.exe is the filename of the file that autoruns.
Exit DOS Editor.

Back at the command prompt type “attrib -s -h -r file.exe”, where file.exe is the file that was called on DOS editor to autorun.
Ex: C:\>attrib -s -h -r file.exe.
If it is located on different directory include the path.
Ex: C:\>attrib -s -h -r c:\Windows\file.exe

Type “del file.exe”. If it is located on different directory include the path.
Ex: C:\>del c:\Windows\file.exe
Type “del autorun.inf”
Type “del c:\Windows\autorun.inf
Type “del c:\Windows\password_viewer.exe
Type “del c:\Douments and Settings\(Your User Name)\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\CD Burning\autorun.inf
Exit command prompt by typing “exit”

If you have any of these files in running process from task manger, end the process before removal.
Note: if task manager is disabled, Download the following file, Click to Download - Enable Registry.reg 

Click Start, Run,Type regedit,Click OK.
Note: If the registry editor fails to open the threat may have modified the registry to prevent access to the registry editor. Download and run this UnHookExec.inf, and then continue with the removal.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\”load”

Exit the Registry Editor,
Restart your Computer.

Recommended Removal Tools:
Kaspersky Antivirus or Internet Security (Shareware)
Spyware Doctor (Shareware)
AVG Antivirus (Freeware)
Killbox (Freeware)

Another year is coming to a close and one lucky person is going to score the ultimate holiday present. Seven days ago this website launched one of the 50 HP Magic Giveaway contests which has attracted over 4000 entries. Besides the guy who decided to spam 1123 entries with sequentially numbered Yahoo emails, the odds are pretty good considering the prize pool value. Even better if you used Windows Vista.

Without a further ado, the winner of the contest is Mark Stephens (@gmail.com). Everyone else wins a novelty thumbs up.

Thanks all for participating and special thanks to HP and Microsoft for organizing such a awesome competition at this time of year. Remember, there are still many chances to win at some of the other 50 blogs who are still running or yet to run their contests. Happy holidays.

Description of WiniGuard and consequences of its residing on your PC

WiniGuard had been dark knight or rather rogue in darkness of malicious Internet sector until hackers trading with it started to apply trojan in its propagation, i.e. WiniGuard had been shadowed and lost among other application aiming to make users pay for the registration through various unfair tactics until that moment when trojan was introduced in its propagation scheme. This program is rather moderate at the background of its predecessors and competitors, but only in the short and medium future. If letting this scam residing and failing to remove WiniGuard in a good time, it will become even nastier than some other rogues. So there is only one reasonable tip in case of infection: remove WiniGuard as soon as its presence disclosed. If you have only hints and suspicions, click here to scan computer for free and get rid of WiniGuard, if applicable.
“WiniGuard is a slow poison for infected machine” – this is the compliant of one user whose Windows was finally destroyed with WiniGuard; these words reflect essence of this malware with good degree of certainty. Short-term influence of WiniGuard is almost harmless while its long residence will destroy operating system sooner or later. Conclusion: remove WiniGuard at the earliest opportunity. Click here  to scan computer free of charge and start WiniGuard removal.

WiniGuard Technical Details

• Full name: WiniGuard, Wini Guard, Win iGuard
• Version: 2009
• Type: Rogue anti-spyware
• Origin: Russian Federation

WiniGuard Screenshots (click to enlarge):

Signs of being infected with WiniGuard:

WiniGuard is expending its activities without unnecessary haste. It is not to be said that that you should remove WiniGuard in all haste, because in opposite case your system may fall down and valuable data erased. Yes, you have time for some consideration, WiniGuard does not belong to the type of malicious software which destroy infected system very promptly.  However, do not linger, slight Windows disordering and pop-ups with alerts would not be much pleasant too.
The first visible sign of  WiniGuard is alert at the vicinity of system tray. It is screened usually in a few days after installation from homepage of this fake security tool. In case of shadowed installation, especially with trojan, the alert may be screened earlier. Cases happen when the alert is not screened at all. There is no information about cases when pop-up at the center of desktop is not screened at all. The pop-up is entitled WiniGuard (sometimes WiniGuard). The time of its appearance is usually in a week after installation. The pop-up is screened automatically with every Windows restart. It includes buttons launching free scan and downloading purchase form online. Click here to start free malware and virus search and remove WiniGuard.

Automatic Removal of WiniGuard from your PC:

Follow the link below to start detecting threats free of charge with free copy of WiniGuard removal tool. If you remove WiniGuard in this way, there is a life-time warranty of its removal effect and protection from other malware intrusion. WiniGuard removal tool is a program that updates faster than the removal instructions below so that any technical deviations in WiniGuard which may lead to removal failure are unlikely to result in removal failure in case of automatic removal. It does not mean, however, that manual guidelines are not updated to the best of our knowledge.

Download WiniGuard Removal Tool

Manual Removal of WiniGuard:

All unnecessary services are to be inactive while you remove WiniGuard manually. If you cannot perform WiniGuard removal from infected computer (for instance, no access to the Registry), restart Windows in a safe mode and try again. If still no effect, try to remove files only from another computer (attach your hard disk to it) and then remove Registry entries from infected Windows after returning your disk back to infected machine.

Remove WiniGuard files and dll’s

winiguard_installer.exe
logaes.dll
WiniGuard.exe

Unregister WiniGuard registry values:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WiniGuard
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WiniGuard
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\“Antivirus”= “%ProgramFiles%\WiniGuard\WiniGuard.exe”

WiniGuard Remover with free scan

The Tab key is your best friend when using the shell, because it will cause BASH to automatically complete whatever you type. For example, if you want to run Ubuntu’s web browser, you can enter firefox at the command line. However, to save yourself some time, you can type fir, and then press Tab. You’ll then find that BASH fills in the rest for you. It does this by caching the names of the programs you might run according to the directories listed in your $PATH variable.

Of course, autocompletion has some limitations. On my Ubuntu test system, typing loc didn’t autocomplete locate. Instead, it caused BASH to beep. This is because on a default Ubuntu installation, there is more than one possible match. Pressing Tab again shows those matches. Depending on how much you type (how much of an initial clue you give BASH), you might find there are many possible matches.

In this case, the experienced BASH user simply types another letter, which will be enough to distinguish the almost-typed word from the rest, and presses Tab again. With any luck, this should be enough for BASH to fill in the rest.


Autocompletion with Files and Paths
Tab autocompletion also works with files and paths. If you type the first few letters of a folder name, BASH will try to fill in the rest. This also obviously has limitations. There’s no point in typing cd myfol and pressing Tab if there’s nothing in the current directory that starts with the letters myfol. This particular autocomplete function works by looking at your current directory and seeing what’s available.

Alternatively, you can specify an initial path for BASH to use in order to autocomplete. Typing cd /ho and pressing Tab will cause BASH to autocomplete the path by looking in the root directory (/). In other words, it will autocomplete the command with the directory home. In a similar way, typing cd myfolder/myfo will cause BASH to attempt to autocomplete by looking for a match in myfolder.

If you want to run a program that resides in the current directory, such as one you’ve just downloaded for example, typing ./, followed by the first part of the program name, and then pressing Tab should be enough to have BASH autocomplete the rest. In this case, the dot and slash tell BASH to look in the current directory for any executable programs or scripts (programs with X as part of their permissions) and use them as possible autocomplete options.

BASH is clever enough to spot whether the command you’re using is likely to require a file, directory, or executable, and it will autocomplete with only relevant file or directory names.


Viewing Available Options
The autocomplete function has a neat side effect. As we mentioned earlier, if BASH cannot find a match, pressing Tab again causes BASH to show all the available options. For example, typing ba at the shell, and then pressing Tab twice will cause BASH to show all the possible commands starting with the letters ba. On my test PC, this produces the following list of commands:

badblocks banner baobab basename bash bashbug batch

This can be a nice way of exploring what commands are available on your system. You can then use each command with the --help command option to find out what it does, or browse the command’s man page.

When you apply this trick to directory and filename autocompletion, it’s even more useful. For example, typing cd in a directory, and then pressing the Tab key twice will cause BASH to show the available directories, providing a handy way of retrieving a brief directory listing. Alternatively, if you’ve forgotten how a directory name is spelled, you can use this technique to find out prior to switching into it.

Source of Information : Apress Beginning Ubuntu Linux 3rd Edition

I have been on an extensive preview of improvements to Windows 7 and major services Microsoft is planning to release to customers for free through its Windows Live wave 3 suite. Our first preview looked at Windows Live Messenger 9 which includes major improvements to social networking and personal identity, you can check that out here. Now we have come to one of the core experience tools in the Live suite, Photo Gallery, which is a combination of digital asset management if you like, photo and video viewer, light weight image editor and a key to sharing your digital memories with family and friends. Windows Live Photo Gallery was initially released as Windows Photo Gallery with the release of Windows Vista in January 2007 succeeding Microsoft's Digital Image Pro software. It was a great addition to Windows that has seen one major update since, the Windows Live Photo Gallery 2008 release which added major integration and online publishing features with Windows Live and third party online services such as Flickr. Photo Gallery has always included third party support through online photo services for printing your images, but with a lot of value and popularity through social sites such as Facebook and Flickr, sharing your memories is exceptionally easier and more fun to use.

Installing Windows Live Photo Gallery 2009 (click to enlarge)

Setup
Live Photo Gallery is installed as a part of the Windows Live Wave 3 suite. You will find Windows Live Photo Gallery located under the Windows Live suite folder in All Programs. Opening the Program for the firs time, a dialog will appear asking for permission to support or import different image file formats. Live Photo Gallery supports a range of image formats, such as .JPEG, .PNG, .GIF, Bitmap, and .TIFF. Images added to your Picture explorers such as Personal or Public Picture folders are automatically populated in Photo Gallery. If you have images stored in another location you can easily add them by going File > 'Include a folder in the gallery...' and navigate to wherever it is located on your hard drive. Microsoft has made some changes to the menu structure, Live Photo Gallery adopts a iconless menu bar which is also a change to Windows 7's Explorer shells. The interface has seen some renovations in key areas, the Photo Gallery controls located at the bottom of the window for quickly viewing a slide show and navigating through your photo library have been reduced to a set of conservative status buttons. Slide show has been cut down a bit though in functionality, previous versions of Photo Gallery displayed collages which is missing in this release. Its something I liked and was even expecting it would be be improved with additional functionality and integration with even the slide show feature in Windows Live Spaces Photo Galleries.  I like the change and makes the interface feel less cumbersome. I understand that Microsoft was trying to create consistency across applications in Windows Vista, but it does not apply to every scenario it seems. This move gives users more real estate to view your photos with no loss in functionality. The interface is much cleaner with less frames and elegant separators with drop shadows.

Windows Photo Gallery UI changes, Vista release (top) and Live Photo Gallery 2008

 

Windows Photo Gallery 2009’s new iconless menus

The new conservative Library Controls, old version (below)

New Menus and Options
Going back to the menu bar area, Live Photo Gallery has added and rearranged some of its options over the past couple of releases. Open has now been replaced by Extras with familiar links to further edit and view your images in default programs such as Microsoft Word (you would be surprised how many image editing options there are in Word 2007), and now Windows Media Center directly from Photo Gallery. Slideshow, once a player control, is now a part of the menu structure. The library controls themselves have been consolidated into status bar buttons which are actually more pleasing, in fact, the 'Zoom in or out' slider is more accessible instead of having to click in previous versions to invoke the function. The sorting area has been significantly cleaned up, columns such as 'Name, Date, Rating etc..' have been consolidated into 'Arrange by auto' menu with additional filters such as Tag and Person (the tagging gallery is now off by default). The Rating feature displays a 5 star options with filtering tools for displaying a specific set based on your personal rating. The fundamentals of Photo Gallery remains the same, and users should feel right at home upgrading to this release.

People Tagging Features (click to enlarge)

Meta Data Features
A core part of managing your digital library, meta data gives the user detailed information about a particular photo or video. This area of the Photo Gallery interface, has not changed significantly in version 2009, but adds new options for users that are sure to impress. The expandable hierarchical view of folders, tags and calendar dates are more subtle with the expandable indicators only appearing when your mouse pointer is hovered within the area. The latest feature that has been added is People tags. The basic idea is to have human recognition in your photos. Its a tradition to take group photos, whether its a couple, family or friends. Its similar to features found on social networking sites such as Facebook or Flickr which allow you to tag people or objects in a photo which either links you to more information about the person or item. People Tags is quite impressive, when you click on a photo with multiple persons in it, the image is immediately identified as having persons found. What is also impressive is the software's ability to identify a face in a photo. If you hover over the Person found buttons in the Tag Gallery a square is automatically generated over a persons face. The level of accuracy is quite amazing. Of course, you can create your own identities if Photo Gallery 2009 does not discover an individual in a photo automatically. If you are not signed in, when the 'That's Me' tag is selected, a Windows Live ID dialog prompt appears asking you to sign in to access services such as Windows Live Spaces and MSN Soap Box. You also get richer tagging capabilities, persons in your Photo's you know can be linked to your Windows Live Contacts (this kind of remind of when Smart Tags were first introduced in Office XP). Powerful stuff, definitely love it.

Beyond photos, users can now publish videos to MSN soapbox, you can download a free plug in Uploader for YouTube by William Duff. An issue I discovered about videos in Photo Gallery 2009, when you are previewing them, there is no support for real time seeking. Videos also depend on GPU acceleration. I am currently running the software on Windows 7, but my nVidia Geforce is not supported yet, so when previewing video, there is constant stuttering. This is not the case on other systems of course where your hardware is properly setup. Other issues I discovered include preview of photos and videos being in half.

A small glitch when previewing photos and videos.

 

Two new editing effects: Straighten and Black and White (click to enlarge)

Editing Photos
Photo Gallery includes some new features for basic photo editing. These include, Black and white effects such as Orange, Sepia, Yellow, Red and Cyan. The No Filter option seems to be buggy right now since it does not turn off the filter effect when the option is selected, I had to CTRL + Z or undo out until the original colors re-appeared. Photo Gallery does give you the ability to revert back to an original though, even after a photo has been edited and saved, this based on Vista’s Previous Versions shadow copy feature. I am not sure if this is available to Windows XP users. These are basic Photoshop functionality users who are familiar with the program will find in Photo Gallery 2009 and they are free! The 'Straighten photo' is also new and just as the name says aligns your image using a gridline while you simply use the slider to control the accuracy. Don't look at the slider, the gridline is the key to ensuring that the photo appears straight based on your personal satisfaction. A new Photo-stitching feature lets you easily build panoramic views from a collection of photos. The panorama must be based on an actual scene, you can't just use a bunch of unrelated photos. The other areas such as Auto adjust, exposure, color, detail, cropping and red eye have remain unchanged.

Print dialog, circa Windows Live Photo Gallery 2007

In addition to its strong support for photo-sharing services, you can order prints directly from over 70,000 worldwide printer services partners. The printing dialog looks a bit out of place in this release, especially on 7, hopefully that gets updated before the final release.

Integration Across Windows Live and Services
Photo Gallery 2009 focuses on making it easy to share your images with the help of services in the Windows Live Suite. Emailing photos is just a click away, I selected 3 images from my library and immediately a Windows Live Mail window popped up. The 'Attach files' dialog is now handled by Live Mail, such as resolution and size, images sent can be reduced to 512 K or the highest 5 MB for best quality. You can add photo effects such as a frame, color border and even choose how your photos are presented to the recipient in different layouts.

Email Options for Photos (click to enlarge)

Publishing your photos has been a feature of Photo Gallery since the 2008 release, with support for Flickr and Windows Live Spaces. Users can obtain additional plug ins for services such as Facebook and YouTube, I hope these come by default with the final version, it just seems like the right out of the box experience thing to do. The two upload plug ins for YouTube can download here and Facebook here  were created by William Duff, for users of Google Picasa, you can find that here by Mark Steeves. So, Photo Gallery provides a very open platform that enables third party developers to further enhance the program beyond what the Windows Live Team delivers. Images published directly to your Live Space are now directly stored on your Windows Live Skydrive. The Windows Live Team has also promised to continue to updating the program regularly so no more tying releases to Windows OS schedules which means, expect innovative updates.

Uploading Photos and setting permissions (click to enlarge)

With the recent roll out of the new Windows Live Home (http://home.live.com) which focuses on improved social networking, sharing your photos is even easier. A feature called 'Home Page Photos' displays a collection of photos you have uploaded from your hard drive. There could have been better integration across the online services, by simply linking to existing galleries of photos that have already been published from Photo Gallery to your Live Space and have them streamed on the users Windows Live Home Page.

The end result.

The upload process is very easy though, simply browse for the photos you would like to add using the browse fields or install the 'Upload Photos Add' which provides drag drop ease for uploading multiple photos at the same time. Once your photos are uploaded, you can set permissions to share with your friends, since the default is just you, add more photos, create a folder or view a slide show and even order prints. Permissions themselves is federated across your Contact list or your Social Network. For instance, I have my Windows Live Messenger list setup in different categories, they show up as groups within the category of permission with Public being everyone that visits your Windows Live Home page and Networks being those within your social group. You have the option of setting options for users such adding photos, editing details or even deleting. If you have friends that are not in your contact list, you can adding them by simply entering their email address and click Save. Photos are displayed in a neat little animated slideshow.

Conclusion
Windows Live Photo Gallery is more than the photo manager we have come know since its inception as one of the multimedia features of Vista. It has evolved over the years into a mature product that integrates tightly with the web through innovative services such as the new Windows Live Home and Windows Live Essentials suite. Its support for add-ons will further enhance the products qualities and give users unique and cool ways of sharing their digital memories. Its a complete end to end experience, its not smooth in some areas, but its off to a definitely great start.

Previously:

A Look at Windows Backup and Windows Update in 7
Instant and Social Communication with Windows Live Messenger 9
Playing with Windows Media Player 12