I'm getting really sick of Windows. :mad:

I don't know when or how this happened, but I noticed yesterday that I wasn't able to download from the web. On checking my My Downloads folder I noticed that the attribute had changed to "Read Only". I changed this back but decided to check my other folders - and EVERY SINGLE folder I have has had the attribute changed to read-only. I'm guessing this was a virus of some kind, but I haven't picked anything up with Norton AntiVirus.

I've changed my main folders back to non-read-only, but am now trying to work out the best way to change them back to before. I tried to Sys Restore to last week, but it wasn't able to do so (and I don't have any more restore points aside from that one).

I suppose the quickest way would be to go to all my root folders and change them back to non-read-only (which would do the same to all the subfolders) but I'm worried that I might inadvertently change the attributes of read-only system folders as well.

Any advice??

When in doubt, Restore System.
When in even more doubt and distress, Reinstall.
I've no idea how this happened.

Get the hell away from Norton Antivirus, upgrade to Avast! or AntiVir Guard(Both free.) far more effective pieces of software.

That's all I can suggest.

I'd just go for the Non-Read-Only on everything, personally. Worst comes to worst it'll just be an OS reinstall, make sure to back stuff up.

<font color=8fbc8f>Why not M$~CP~Folder-Options~Click Defaults~View~Click Defaults~Exit.
Then back again and custom set options to your preference.

If you are protected, which you are by one of the best, no worry on the system folders. Unless of course you do things that should not be discussed here.

What anti-spy ware do you use. This is more than likely your culprit!

Not sure why anybody would suggest that you not use one of the most irreproachable programs in the anti-v market, then suggest that you use a freeware program. [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img] </font>

I don't trust programs that leave remnants on my computer to prevent it's competitors from being installed after I uninstall it.

Not to mention that AVG caught several things on my computer that Norton never spotted.

Felix, Felix... the best things in life are free.
Compared to AVG, Norton sucks big time. Avast! and AVG are by far the best(maybe Anti-Vir too, haven't tried that one in a long time) on the free market, and there's absolutely no need to pay for anthing, unless you are paying for NOD32, which is best overall. Norton just doesn't cut it, it's only selling points are hype and muscle advertisement.

Er, aren't Anti-Vir Guard and AVG the same thing?

<font color=8fbc8f>Must remember that people here are not as the people elsewhere.

The spousal unit's Dell, which is the M$ system, and does the online banking, taxes, etc.. has all the M$, and other high end software on it. It always evades me that what we have, and the general public has, are two different entities.

You are obviously referring to plain wrapper Norton. I'm referring to Symantec CE 10. Two complete different species from the same DNA.

Yes of course, a plain wrapper AVG would perform for the home user better than a plain wrapper Norton. My apologies.</font> [img]graemlins/drinkup.gif[/img]

[ 01-27-2007, 04:39 PM: Message edited by: Felix The Assassin ]

Like I said, even if they offered me a ten-million-dollar piece of software that NASA and the Pentagon swore by, I'd still tell them to stuff it.

Their software intentionally leaves fragments to foul up competitors' software after you uninstall it. That's just not right. Either it's intentional and they're giant dickholes or it's unintentional and they're incompetent monkeys.

<font color=8fbc8f>Amen Brother! Can I get a hallelujah to boot?

Speaking of a boot, can I send you a Linux OS system CD? Then you will have no iffing worries about software, corporate corruption, and minor traces left over in the registry that are easy enough to remove from the keyboard.</font>

However I'll have to program my OS from scratch just to play my .OGG's.

<font color=8fbc8f>Nicht neine die pommes!Hardly! The current Ubuntu 6.10 uses many different approaches than previously, and .OGG are very compatible, in fact all of my rips are Vorbis.

But this is not getting 'Mems" anywhere.

Any luck yet?</font>

"Nicht neine die pommes"? Why are you mixing German and French into one lovely pile of nonsensical?

Or he's saying no to female french fries! :D

Anti-Vir is Avira's, AVG(which stands for Anti Virus Guard) is Grisoft's.

Oh, and Felix, no. No Norton packaged anti virus; CE, XE or EE can ever hope to match AVG, or even Avast!. I've tried Norton, tested it, benchmarked it, and I have found it lacking. That, and the fact that it likes to make your PC it's home are reasons enough to not use it. Please stop trying to insult, aggravate or belittle people who don't agree with you by calling them "M$ supporters", general public, civilians or whatever other monicker you deem apropriate.

Alright, I've got the Avira thing. Just got confused since Anti-Vir Guard would fit with AVG as a shorthand title.

<font color=8fbc8f>You have never encountered "Amies" in your region?

"Not no, but heck no~mayonnaise on our french fries"!</font>

Pommes is still a French word and therefore does not go with German words.

<font color=8fbc8f>"pommes fritz" as in Bavarian slang for 'french fries'. </font>

You didn't write fritz, did you? You wrote pommes. And what you call french fries is actually spells pommes frites in french. Is that another illustration of just how "out of the loop" we civilians are?

[ 01-27-2007, 07:51 PM: Message edited by: Bozos of Bones ]

OK, back to topic. This is really giving me the shits now. [img]graemlins/madhell.gif[/img]

I went and changed ALL folders to unset the read-only attribute (ie to switch it off). It was very time consuming as I had to go to each root folder (I couldn't do it at the drive level) and click Properties and then untick the little box for Read Only. I thought that would fix the problem. Except that after rebooting my computer it's all changed back to Read-Only again!!! :mad:

Anyone know of a way to fix this? I'd really not want to have to do a reinstall - I have so many applications on this PC and can't really afford to frig around with this.

Felix, I'm using SpyBot and AdAware.

One more thing - my laptop didn't have that many issues until I (foolishly) decided to "optimise" (using the word very loosely) it with first Iolo System Mechanic 6 (the WORST optimiser ever - it totally buggered up my system) and then with Norton System Works. Since then I've been having RPC failures when I shut off/restart, plus my boot times take so much longer now, and then this problem with the read-only folders...

I can say SpyBot and AdAware haven't caused any problems at all for me. Though, looking at it, all my folders ARE read-only, it just doesn't encumber me since all it does is present me with an: "are you sure?" when I want to delete something and doesn't seem to interfere with any programs of mine.

I'm capable of downloading things, even of having programs download stuff for me, without any issues.

Perhaps your troubles originate from something other than the read-only folders?

<font color=8fbc8f>Your answer then lies within your post. The optimizer has taken 'control' of the system, irregardless of your setting, upon reboot, it takes the commands from the 'optimizer' control and sets the system 'back' to that programs default.

I have zero experience with this. But it almost surely sounds like a complete format, install situation. You may get the program off, but it sounds like the registry is afflicted as well, and as we all know, that is the tricky party to work with.</font>

It might be an idea to just wipe the program before we go as far as to start formatting and reinstalling.

Mind you, I'd say it might be something other than the System Mechanic being the problem, I dug up a few reviews of it, just googled in case someone had similar issues and there was an easy solution, and it generally scored high. For the most part the only complaints anyone had were about the interface and documentation.

Considered downloading some new AV software and giving it a spin? Might be there's something your old stuff isn't catching. Have you tried a HijackThis check?

What do you mean, the optimiser has taken control of my system?

Felix means it smells like the optimiser has, in some way or another, inserted itself deeply into your system, and even now, it continues to try to optimise for you.

You might try going back to a restore point prior to installing the optimizer... and then stay away from such things. Rarely have I seen such a tool be worth the money it costs... or the bits used to store it...

And seconds on Purple's thoughts of a HJT run. www.merijn.org, if you need it... not quite user-friendly, but effective.

<font color=8fbc8f>He mentioned earlier that he tried a restore point, and it did not help.

I keep forgetting how hard and time consuming it is to re-install that OS. Maybe he could patch it and crutch it until he upgrades to the new one.

But whats a couple hours of downtime, for a few more months of uptime really worth?</font>

If it's something that a good HJT scan could purge, that'll save him a lot of program reinstallations. It's not that hard to install the OS, it just takes time, the major annoyance is in having to reinstall everything else afterwards.

Mem: If you're not a supremo tech wiz, then just throw the HijackThis log on here and I'd be willing to go through it for anything obviously malignant.

What is HJT?

HijackThis

Basically it gives you a rundown of everything that's currently screwing with your computer or calling itself up on startup(If I'm remembering correctly.), even stuff your task manager and Install/Remove programs won't show.

It's a bit technical to use since it also shows perfectly legal stuff, like your AV software, your firewall, basic system files, etc.

However, if you do it, print out the log and share it with someone who knows what they're doing, they can almost always tell you if you've got malicious software and what you should annihilate.

To expand on what Purple said, HJT looks through the registry for suspicious behaviors. Keys, browser helpers, and other things. It brings those to your attention, and you can then decide what to do with them. For example, since I've got Acrobat installed, the Acrobat browser helper is okay.

It differs from other spyware tools in that instead of looking for bad *things*, it looks for bad behavior. So it may bring up innocent things.

The good news is that you can train it to ignore those things in the future.

The bad news... prepare to spend a lot of time googling for executables to see what they do. I'll give you one head start... I tend to trust liutilities.com as a reference source, along with a couple of others.

I tend to have a very no-nonsense policy with HJT. If I know it's something I've installed or it's an important Windows file, it gets to go on the Ignore list, otherwise I just wipe it on principle. I don't care what it does, if it's on there without my permission, it goes.

Your best bet is to use HT then go to their forums and ask if someone can look at your log. Instead of spending forever they can tell you what does and doesn't belong there. I've done it before.