System Restore Saves the Day!

Microsoft System Restore
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-SG/windows7/products/features/system-restore

This has been in system a long time ago, since XP perhaps. While most of the time, we only hear about how this feature waste space and cause delay during installation, we had totally forgotten when it would become useful.

In fact, for me, even in the days of Windows 8.1, this feature prove to be useful. What actually happened to me was that I was migrating one of my PC from a ATI (AMD) graphics card to a Nvidia one.

 

It is no surprise that ATI and Nvidia driver would not play nice together. The fatal mistake was however my own. I had forgotten to remove the old ATI driver before shutting down and plug in my Nvidia card. After testing, I wanted to change back to my ATI card and this time, even when I remember to uninstall the Nvidia driver, it just give me the famous "Black Screen of Death" at the Windows 8 login. I had tried reinstalling the ATI driver (but it won't install when the Nvidia card is in) and install-remove the Nvidia driver, but it just wont boot up when the ATI card is in, but perfectly OK on the Nvidia. I guess it could be a "feature" so that you won't switch back to your own card... LOL

Anyway, in the end, during the boot option, I click "Advance Option" and decided to try a System Restore, fortunately was just before the swap since the Direct X was updated. Guess, what? It solved all the issue and I got it up on the very next reboot (even though System Restore did took a while).

So, ask yourself is that little bit more of HDD space worth it? To me, definitely, since HDD space is cheap nowadays and System Restore actually manages itself not to overuse the space anyway. And one thing is for sure, I would add more restore point in the future. And lastly, Thanks Microsoft for implementing this nice feature! 

Uninstall Orbit from Chrome

I am sure at some point of time you may uninstall one of the downloaders such as Orbit:
http://www.orbitdownloader.com/

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying its a bad downloader, but it just happen that I could not use it effectively in office.

Anyway, what I am going to described probably may affect some of you out there. What happened to me was that during the installation, my Google did not exist completely. I had manually close Chrome, but somehow one of the instance must still be running during the uninstallation. Anyway, the result is that Orbit is not cleanly uninstalled. Whenever I tried to download something, it would still redirect to Orbit (and worse, it doesn't work anymore)

So, let's see how to clean up this mess.
1. Before you start, make sure Orbit is no more around (uninstallation from Control Panel)
2. Close all instances of Chrome. (Use task manager to check that here is no more instances running too)
3. Now, let's find the file "nporbit.dll". You can use search or under these directories:
%localappdata%\Google\Chrome\Application\Plugins
4. Delete the file.
5. Open up chrome and type "chrome://plugins/"
6. Find Orbit Downloader and disable it.

That's all you need to. Well to fully clean everything, you can always reinstall Orbit. Reboot and uninstall Orbit... But its just kinda of troublesome...

Agnitum Outpost Security Suite Pro v9.1

Ok, I promised I will be giving (technically, I am just linking) a 1 year free license to a paid AV. The good news is that, it is not only an AV, but a full Security Suite including the firewall and all. So, which one is it? Its Outpost Security Suite Pro v9.1.

So, how good do you think it is? Outpost had always been a really good firewall, and at a time, even the best FREE firewall around. It had also been winning awards from many popular polls such as VB100.

See the awards here:
http://www.agnitum.com/news/awards.php

Some of the features:

• Anti-Malware module with greater detection accuracy
• Two-way firewall for secure network connections
• Proactive Protection module to preemptively block unknown and zero-day threats
• SmartDecision technology to facilitate secure decision-making
• Web control with fast web content filtering to protect your PC from web-borne threats
• System and Applications Guard to keep installed software and OS protected
• Self-protection technology to maintain continuity of protection
• The 4^th generation of SmartScan optimization technology for fast subsequent malware scans
• USB virus protection to prevent malware which spreads via USB devices
• Program activity tracker to review file and registry activity in real time
• Entertainment mode (for games and video) and Auto-Learn 2.0 (for beginners)

Read more about Outpost Security Suite v9.1
http://www.agnitum.com/products/security-suite/

I hope that had gotten you excited. Now, you must be screaming how to get this free?
Thanks to Computerbild, visit this page in Russian:
http://www.agnitum.ru/promo/computerbild/

But not to worry, this is roughly what it translates to:

And this is the important part. You need to key in this Key (manually) :
8IJDI-G2KWK-4SG8S-8SWGS-GWG5X

I suggest you key in your email so that you would received support information from Agnitum.
Then in the next page you should get a key (with many alphanumeric letters). Make sure you copy and paste it into notepad and SAVE IT! It will not be send to your email again.

Just download one of the following installers here:
32 Bits Installer
64 Bits Installer
Do a installation and proceed to register your product. Paste in ONLY the bunch of alphanumeric letters, skip the name, email etc. I know its not straight forward, but just make sure no extra line break and such and you will get it right.

Enjoy your 1 year free of Outpost Security Suite Pro!
Please leave a thanks if you appreciate this. And do pick up a copy of Computerbild while you are in Moscow!

What AV Survey End

It had been a long time since I updated the Antivirus poll and I know its not fantastic, but at least it seems to me that people who voted made good use of FREE antivirus such as Microsoft or Avast (FREE version I presumed). Well, maybe that will guide my direction that more people actually wants to get hold of a good paid AV.

The results however does not tally with the real market trends out there, but of course that because its only for visitor on my blog. But don't worry, the poll is not a waste effort. In fact in the next 5 minutes, I would share a 1 year license of a paid AV with you!