Browser Choice: Being forced to chose your browser...

This summer I am back in Norway, working at the dairy again. I was set to do some upgrades of our Plania maintenance system, so the IT manager at the dairy gave me a Thinkpad T60 to use. It was really interesting to get to use this laptop, and the T60 will be the subject for my next blog.

The T60 hadn't been used for a while, so the first day I used it, Windows Update found a lot of updates that I let it install during the day. When I booted up the next day, a window with some text suddenly popped up. It had no identification, but the text said that the web browser was important, and that it would help me to choose my web browser. I just had to make sure I was connected to the internet, and then click OK. Initially I suspected this to be some kind of Malware or virus, and if this had been my own computer, I would probably have been very careful before proceeding. If proceeding at all.

Since it wasn't my own computer, I was a little more daring, and clicked OK. That took me to a window listing 6 different browsers; IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome, and it gave a brief description of them all. It also provided links to where they could be downloaded. I started suspecting that this was something that I had gotten through the update the day before, and a quick Google search told me what this window was. This was Microsoft's "Browser Choice Screen", rolled out through the Windows Update, as requiered by the European Commision.

BrowserChoice: What at first glance seemed to be malware, turned out to be Microsoft's attempt to tell me that there are other browsers than IE around.

The purpose of EU's demand was to try and break Microsoft's browser monopoly. Well.. Maybe monopoly isn't the right word, as there are other browsers than IE out there. But IE has a huge advantage over the other ones. IE is a part of the Windows operating system, which means it is the standard browser in most computers sold around the world. Added the fact that many users don't bother to check out other browsers, and even don't have the skills to find and install a different one, automatically gives IE a very big market share. Not because it's the best browser, but simply because it's there. So by informing IE users that there are other browsers, and explaining where they can be downloaded, other browser manufacturers will theoretically have better chances of getting their products out in the open. So far, so good.

For my own part, I have been using Firefox for some years now. When I updated from IE6 to IE7, it made my Thinkpad T30 start trashing and sometimes lock up. That really wasn't IE's fault, rather the fact that I ran XP with only 256Mb RAM. But Firefox was a little less resource demanding, so it ran better. While using Firefox on the T30, I became familiar with it, and after that I have always installed Firefox on all my computers and used it as my default browser.

So there I was: An above average computer user, getting an application installed on my comptuer that told me things I alrerady knew, and encouraging me to make choices I had already made. It made me annoyed. I always let Windows Update installs updates without checking them first, because I trust that updates are things that benefits me. But not this one. It had given me something that was totally uneccessary. BrowserChoice was a waste of my resources, and it was invasive. I wanted this thing to go away, and I immediately started looking into deleting it.

On the T60, running XP Pro, the task of deleting BrowserChoice was pretty straight forward. Since it opened up when the computer booted up, I suspected it had to be in msconfig/Startup, and it turned out that it was. I unchecked it, and the entry also gave me the location of the Browserchoice.exe file, which was in C:\Windows\System32. The .exe file got deleted, together with the desktop icon. I also did a quick search in the registry, and deleted the keys and entries for BrowserChoice there as well. That wasn't necessary, though, and unless you know what you are doing, you should leave the registry alone.

Luckily, the BrowserChoice is only applied to computers with IE as their default browser, so my T42, T43 and the Lenovo S10-2 were not affected by it. But some weeks later I installed Vista Ultimate on my home computer, and before I started installing non-Windows applications, I let Windows do updates. Firefox hadn't been installed yet, and I didn't pay attention to which updates were applied, so once again I saw the BrowserChoice window pop up on my screen. Sigh.. And removing it from Vista was a bit harder. The msconfig/Startup entry was the same as in XP. But the Browserchoice.exe file couldn't be deleted, because I had no access to it.. From the properties it turned out that the user "TrustedInstaller" owned and had the permissions for the file. So I had to go to Properties/Security tab/Advanced/Owner tab and transfer ownership of the file to the Admin user (Me) Then give my self permissions, and finally delete the file. The search in the registry didn't return any matches, but after looking for a while, I found and deleted an entry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE.

So what did this update bring me? Basically nothing more than frustration. First because I got something totally unwanted, uneccessary and invasive installed on my computer that was a hassle to get rid of. Especially in the Vista environment. Second, because I can no longer trust Windows Update. From now on I will have to carefully look through every update manually to avoid getting more stuff like this installed. I really can't blame Microsoft, as they are forced to do this. But I think they should have been allowed to include an option where you after accepting some formal agreements, and perhaps clicking a couple of "Are you sure?" buttons, could uninstall this thing.

My own selfish views aside, what does this thing bring US? I have to admit that the basic idea is good. More competition in the browser market will trigger development and innovation among browser manufacturers, which will in the end gain you and me by giving us better browsers. Maybe..?

Bjorn tries the iPad

This is a blog that I wrote in early May, while the iPad still was new and unknown to most of us. Sadly it ended up in the drafts folder, and didn't get published before now . (June 2010)

When I picked up Jenn from work last Friday, I noticed that there were 3 iPads lined up next to each other in her office. They were recently purchased, and the IT department there had bought them to test them and see what they could do with them. Lew, the sysadmin, offered me to take one home for the weekend, and of course I accepted the offer.

This gave me a first hand opportunity to see if the iPad is as cool as it is claimed. Well, is it? At first glance it's actually hard to not be impressed by this little shiny thing with the fancy look, the fancy touch screen features and the excellent quality screen. Watching youTube videos was great, and controlling everything through the touch screen worked better than expected. Even the on-screen keyboard worked great.

But what can this thing do? Can it do anything more than actually display nice stuff? Can any serious computing be done with this thing? The answer is no. This is NOT the device you sit down and create stuff with. The only text editor I found is a virtual notepad, with pages that flips over. The notes can be saved, but I am not sure what format it is, and where they are saved. I am born and raised in the Microsoft world, so the lack of the ability to create something as simple as a plain .txt document makes life hard for me. I guess you can probably buy some applications from the famous Apple application store that enables you to do some more here. Which is another problem. The fact that everything has to be bought through Apples store. No room for any freeware or experimenting with random downloaded applications here. If Steve Jobs don't like it, then you can't buy it..

This was the analytical part of it. If we stick to the basic facts, we see some other limitations. This thing has an Apple A4 1 Ghz processor, 256Mb of RAM and according to the description on the back, 16GB of space. So the general specifications and especially the storage capabilities are limited. Poor "local" resources. On the outside shell, the only connectors are a headphone jack and a huge proprietary connector. I really miss a USB port, as the lack of this very standard and useful interface, really limits what you can connect to the iPad. Except if you, once again, buy some port replicator from the Apple store or other equipment, especially made for the iPad.

The iPad. A very clean design and a beautiful screen. A nice gadget.

So basically, like one of my wife's workmates said to me: The iPad is meant for consuming content, and not creating it. His description couldn't be much more true. A fun toy. And this is most likely also the intent of the iPad.

So, would I like to have one? Yes, I would probably like that. Particularly the day I could find a used one for half the price of a new one. But I would never buy any applications for it, and after the first sensation had worn off, my iPad would probably ended up gathering dust in the pile of gadgets. The pile of stuff that is nice and interesting to have, but not really useful. The lack of capabilities to do other things than fun stuff, would be annoying in the long run. It's small, light weight and very portable. Good and well; but would I leave my notebook, the Lenovo S10-2, a fully capable computer back home in favor of the iPad if I went somewhere? I guess not. And if I really needed the touch screen capability, what can the iPad do that a Thinkpad tablet can't do?

Another downside for a tech nerd is that you can not change the battery your self. Yes, you are right: The iPad needs to be shipped back to Apple so they can do it.. I am however pretty sure that the day the battery died, I would open my iPad up, with the danger of actually breaking the whole iPad, to replace the battery my self. Luckily there are people who have already taken one apart and put instructions on the internet. To be honest: To manage an operation like that, would probably be one of the things that would bring me the most satisfaction with owning a iPad.

T43 Fan repair

At this point I have owned and used the IBM Thinkpad T43 as my main computer for almost 3 years, and this laptop has really served me well. During these years I have brought it back and forth to the US 3 times, and it has also traveled around with me both here in the US and back in Norway. I have been playing with the thought of maybe buying a Thinkpad T60 sometime this year, to use as my new daily computer, and keep the T43 as a backup computer. The T6x generation introduced the Dual Core, later Core 2 Duo processors, which gave a major jump in performance over the single core T4x generation. But to be honest, so far I have not experienced many situations, if any at all, where the T43's processor power has come short. However, this will be subject for a later blog.

The major plan at this time, regardless of whether the T43 became a backup computer or not, was to give the T43 a little maintenance. I decided that I wanted to take it apart and clean out the fan/cooling unit, apply new thermal compound and give it a general check. I almost suspect that the laptop read my thoughts about this, because it suddenly decided to have the cooling fan die. At first the fan only made a barely audible humming noise, but it soon developed into a louder, grinding noise, and I didn't feel comfortable having the laptop running without me being around it. A seized fan can have bad consequences like overheating and even blow fuses on the motherboard. So, it seemed like I had to bite the bullet and get started with the project earlier than I had planned to.

After posting on the forum, I once again got in contact with Brad, which offered me a fan $15 cheaper than Lenovo sell them for, so we did a deal again. The fan is a part of a complete unit consisting of the heatsink, and the heat transfer pipes. I also purchased a small tube of Arctic Silver heat transfer compound, and I was ready to go.

IBM always made very good HMM (Hardware Maintenance Manuals) for their products, so I made sure to read trough this first. I also prepared a piece of cardboard with holes in, to keep track of the screws I had to take out, and their location. The first screws hold the keyboard, which can be slid back and lifted out after the screws are removed. The next part was to unscrew and take the palmrest/keyboard bezel off, and suddenly I had access to the internals.

The T43 with the keyboard, keyboard bezel and heatsink unit removed. The fan/heatsink unit can be seen on the right side of the machine. Also notice the cardboard used to keep track of the screws.

The heatsink unit is held by three screws, and the T43 Type 2668 uses a so called "long fan" that covers both the CPU and GPU chip. The heat transfer from the CPU is done by contact transfer, aided by thermal compound, while the GPU part uses a heat transfer pad between the GPU top plate and the heatsink. Unfortunately this pad gets very stuck to the GPU over time, and due to the potential loose GPU failure, the GPU is the last component you want to expose to any kind of stress/force. The GPU failure is not so likely to happen on the T43 as it is on the earlier T4x machines, but you still want to be very careful.

The ATI GPU with the heatsink removed. Notice the red epoxy dots around the edges of the GPU and the South and Northbridge chips. The epoxy, in addition to improved soldering techniques, made the T43s much less likely to experience the loose GPU failure than the previous T4x laptops.

So I ended up using dental floss to cut into a corner of the heat transfer pad and compound that filled the space between the GPU and the heatsink. In the end I had enough open room to put the tip of a screwdriver in between, and being very careful not to apply twisting or lifting forces to the GPU, I managed to lift the heatsink off. After unplugging the fan cable, the entire unit could be lifted out.

The new heatsink came with dots of thermal compound preapplied at the point where it makes contact with the CPU, but I removed that and applied the Arctic Silver. The pad for the GPU was there too. Then I put the unit back, and fastened the three screws. I also triple checked that I really reconnected the power cable for the fan. The last thing I wanted to do was to pull the laptop apart again just because I forgot that. One point to notice is that one of the screws holding the keyboard bezel needs to be put back after the keyboard is back in place. The HMM gives specific instructions on this, so it's highly recommended to read through this before you do this.

It's always exciting to do the first boot up after messing with the internals of a computer, but my repair seemed to have turned out just fine. The laptop booted up, and there were no noises from the fan anymore. I am even planning to download and install CPUID to monitor the temperatures, just to be in 100% control. I regret I didn't install CPUID earlier, so I could have been able to compare the temperatures now to what they were before I changed the fan and put new thermal compound on.

So, with a new fan, a new battery and a new hard drive, I hope the T43 will serve me well for more years to come. If it becomes a spare laptop, and is no longer used on a daily basis, my guess is that it will last for a very long time.

The tale of the HP Pavilion, part 2.

After Alexa's HP desktop computer got a brand new power supply, I suspected the computer to be a happy piece of machinery for a long time to come. (Ref. The tale of the HP Pavilion, below) But I was wrong. Last Friday I got another phone call from Alexa, and she could tell that the computer had got a bad virus and it was now impossible to use. I offered to help once again, and went over to her house last Saturday.

I have always run some sort of anti virus software on my computers, everything from expensive (and overpriced?) Norton, to good freeware like AVG and Avast. This has probably saved me from ever having to deal with any really bad virus infections. But Alexa definitely had a virus or some bad malware running. Pop-ups telling me that the computer was infected kept popping up, and if I clicked them, an interface popped up and told me that the computer was being scanned, and recommended me to buy some kind of software. This was of course fake alerts generated by the virus, so I never clicked the link. I don't know what you could actually find there, but probably nothing that could solve this problem. IE also kept popping up from time to time, telling me where to find and buy adult entertainment. Nice..

The fake antivirus popups seemed to come from a little icon on the notification area, so there was obviously some process going on. I tried to find out more about it, but no matter what I tried to run, MRT (Malicious Software Removal Tool), taskmanager, search, etc, I just gor error messages telling me that the process was infected and could not be executed.

I suspect that there had been no working anti virus software on the computer, so after getting the virus, Alexa had bought and downloaded some software. But the install was corrupted, probably because of the virus, and the application would not start. So I went round and round with the anti virus software and different anti malware software for a while, both in safe mode and normal mode. Some of them could not be installed in safe mode, while others could be installed but would not perform scans in safe mode. Back in normal mode, the applications were corrupt and would not start. At last I managed to install Malware Bytes, and perform a full scan, but it didn't find anything.

So I took the HP back home, and started looking carefully into it. Without network it took a while for the virus to start, so I got task manager opened, and took notes of the processes running. After the virus started sending pop ups, I discovered a process named "xydisftav". I didn't find any information online, but both Jenn and I agreed that this seemed suspicious, so we stopped the process. That seemed to halt the virus , so I did a file search, and found the file xydisftav.exe under C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data. The file got deleted, and I was happy to see that the pop ups didn't show up again. The virus was gone!

I decided to put some kind of basic anti virus on the computer, but the AVG download process caused me two BSODs and I don't like the Avast user interface, so I decided to go with Avira Antivir. A lightweight free anti virus application that has a decent interface and does a good job according to online sources. For the next days, I let the computer run day and night, performing various virus and malware scans. In the end nothing more was found, and a happy Alexa could stop by and pick up her computer again. The poor HP has had some unfortunate experiences lately, but I hope life will treat it better now, and that I won't have to see it again for a while.

Bjørn Sveigdalen

Malware and slow bootup

One of my concerns when it comes to my computers is the bootup time. Sometimes when I have borrowed other people's computers (particularly laptops, it seems) I experience devices that use several minutes to boot up and load Windows. I don't know why this annoys me so much, but I guess the combination of impatience and seeing a poorly maintained system might be the reason. Bootup isn't supposed to take that long, and it can be a sign of an overfilled harddrive or that something is wrong with the installation.

My IBM T43 has always had a fairly quick bootup, and I have always made sure to take actions if any changes I do seem to affect the bootup time. If it does, I take a quick peek into msconfig/startup to see if some strange process is suddenly added to the list. So far, the thing that has affected the bootup time the most is actually my AVG antivirus. Especially the upgrades to newer versions. But I guess that's the price to pay for being up to date. New antivirus applications are created to take advantage of newer computers’ increased processing capabilities, to offer the best possible protection. Which means that older computers, like my T43, get a harder time dealing with these applications.

But I shouldn't complain. It only takes 70 seconds from I push the button and turn the T43 on, until I see my desktop with the icons. When my XP installation was new it did the same in between 40 and 50 seconds, but after going through a whole bunch of upgrades, installations and uninstallations during 3 years, 70 seconds is still not too bad.

So what happened last weekend really gave me a headache for a while...

My wife was using the T43, when she suddenly lost internet access. It later turned out that our Packet8 phone modem caused that, but we didn't know that then. Jenn does IT support and computer troubleshooting for a living, so she knows what she's doing, but this time she had to deal with a computer that had menus in norwegian. So instead of disconnecting from the wireless network, she ended up disabling the T43’s wireless card. It took me a while before I figured out why I couldn't see my wireless connections anymore, but I got it enabled again and did a reboot. Then I suddenly noticed that the T43 took forever to reboot. Between 2 and 3 minutes would be my estimate. Wow, what had happened?

Usually, the root cause of a problem is the most recent change you have done to the system. Could a bad driver cause Windows to look for my wireless card as a missing hardware component? After trying to update the driver, I realized that could not be the case. So I took a quick peek into msconfig/Startup, and noticed there were a couple of new entries there. Most of the names doesn’t really explain much, so I did an online search for all of them. A site that returned good search results was bleepingcomputers.com, and I indetified two entries as “Undesireable programs” . These two were ld08 and mstre18, pointing to the ld08.exe and mstre18.exe files in the C:\Windows folder. The ld08 is described as a Trojan that displays fake antivirus messages.

The actual .exe files were no longer in the Windows folder, so I have no idea if they have ever been there at all. I suspect they have been there at one point, even though I have never had problems with fake antivirus popups. But as soon as I unhooked these two startup items, bootup was back to it’s old, and maybe even slightly faster than it’s been for the last two months or so. Windows apparently spent time looking for these two files, and that caused the slow bootup.

If you are curious, and want to check this on your own computer, the Startup Items menu is found by opening Run (Kjør), and running the commando msconfig. The window named System Configuration Utility will appear, and you select the tab Startup. My startup list contains 39 items, of which 8 are now disabeled. But be very careful! Some of these are processes needed to make your computer and operating system work. So make sure to do a search, with the search text msconfig, followed by the name from the column Startup Item. An example of a search term from my computer is “msconfig syntplpr”. SynTPLpr is a process needed to make the T43’s touchpad work, so this can not be disabeled. In my case, the search results from bleepingcomputer.com gave me the answers what the items were, and if they should be disabeled or not.


Bjørn Sveigdalen