The most famous malicous programs for Windows in 2009

This is a list of the new viruses and Trojan horses that infected most number of windows based computer systems in 2009. These viruses, worms, and Trojan horses adopted most common and new ways to infect and destroy PCs. Here we look into the most famous of all the new viruses, worms, and Trojan horses that created havoc to windows users in the past year.
1. WMA/TrojanDownloader.GetCodec: The systems infected with this this trojan will get a notice to convert the audio files in your computer to .wma format. It will also contain a link to download the codecs required to make this conversion possible. If you click on this link you will get into trouble. The Trojan will download more malicious code into your PC.
2. WIN32/Conficker: Confiker is one of the most popular worm of 2009. It is targeted towards windows based systems. It uses the autorun feature and USB storage devices to infect PCs. When your PC got infected with this worm the worm will start downloading more malicious code and slow down your network and destroy your PC.
3. WIN32/AGENT: This is a dangerous virus targeted towards windows based PCs. This virus copy itself to a temporary location in your computer. Once the virus start working in the background it will add new start up entry values to the system registry and create copies of it in different locations in your computer. Then it will start stealing and sending valuable information from your system to the intruder.
4. WIN32/QHOST: This is a malicious program that infects your PC. This will convert your PC into a zombie. It will make changes the DNS settings in your computer. It exploits the vulnerabilities in the Automatic Updates feature in windows. When you try to auto update the system you will be redirected to malicious websites and malicious code will be automatically installed in your PC.
5. Win32/PSW.ONLINE GAMES: This Trojan targets gamers. When this got infected in your PC it will gry to steal your personal and financial details. This trojan mainly attacks online gamers.
6. WIN32/PACEX.GEN:  This is a torjan that uses an obfuscation layer in order to steal sensitive information from your PC. There a number of trojan programs that use the same technique to steal information from your PC. So beware of this kind of malwares and remove them from your PC if you suspect this kind of program has infected your PC.

You can use a good antimalware program to remove these viruses and Trojans. It is better you use more than one system security tool to remove them. Always use updated antivirus and antimalware programs. In this way you can keep your system protected from new and recent malware attacks.

How to delete undeletable files in XP?

When you try to delete certain files you will get the an access denied, or file is used by another program error message. I will tell you how to delete these undeletable file.
1. Navigate to Start > Search > All Files and Folders
2. Enter the name of file that you cannot delete manually in the search box
3. Press the Search button and wait until the search is finished.
4. Now you will got the full details of the undeletable file along with tis full path address which may look like “c:\windows\system32\undeletable.txt” or so.
Now we are going to use the command prompt in order to delete this file.
5. Navigate to Start > Run and type cmd .Press Enter.
6. Change the directory to the one where the undeletable file is located. Here it is in the system32 directory. So we are going to use the command  “cd \windows\system32” in order to change the directory to sytstem32 in the c: drive.
7.The next step is to use the “DEL” command in order to delete the file we want to delete. For this type DEL <filename> in the command prompt and press Enter. Here we are going to delete undeletable.txt and so the command looks like “DEL undeletable.txt“.
Note:Some files for example the files in the temp directory are files that are used by the programs currently running in your system. So if you got a error message saying “File is being used by another program or process” then try to figure out which program may be using the file. To do this press “ALT+ CTRL + DELETE” to open the task manager. Then select the process tab and select the process you think may be using the file and right click and select “End Process“. Otherwise you can stop all the running programs and your firewall or antivirus that may be running in the background and try to delete the file.

How to boost the loading time of programs in Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution I like the most and love to experiment with. Ubuntu is not like other distros, is more user friendly, but it requires some memory more than other distros out there. You will experience some lagging in loading programs while working in Ubuntu. You can boost the loading time of applications in Ubuntu with a single command.

sudo aptitude install preload

This will install preload in your Ubuntu system and you will experience, not faster booting, but faster loading of applications. You will notice that after you have installed preload the applications load faster than before. This is because  perload will add a new feature to Ubuntu. It will check the programs you have launched and preload all the library files required to run the program before it request them and the result is much faster starting of applications.

Hope you enjoyed the post.

Creating and manipulating files in Fedora.

The bash shell commands can be used to create files.

To create a file in bash you can use the following command:

$ touch filename

Now run the following command:

$ ls -l filename

You can see that the file contains zero bytes and the date of creation of the file

You can also try running this command:

$ ls -il filename

This will display almost the same information with the inode number of the file.

Copying the contents of files.

To copy the contents of a file you can use the following command:

$ cp source destination

eg: cp file1 file2

To copy file to a existing directory use the command

cp file1 directoryname

To copy file to a directory in your home directory type:

cp file1 directoryname/

To copy file to a directory you are currently in type:

cp /home/dogger/blog/file1 .
cp: overwrite ‘./file1’?

You can use different parameters to manipulate your files and directories too.

cp -R dir1 dir2 recursively copies the contents of one directory to the other.

The different parameters you can use to manipulate files and directories

-a This parameter archives file by preserving its attributes.
-b Creates a backup of the existing file.
-d This attribute preserves the attributes of the existing file.
-f Forces the overwriting of existing destination
-i This command is same is -f, but prompts before overwriting.
-l It is used to create a file link.
-p This attibute is used to preserve the same attributes as that of the orginal file in the copied file.
-r This parameter is used to copy files recursively.
-R Copies the contents of directories recursively.
-v Verbose mode.
-x The file copy is restricted to the current filesystem.

To see the owner of a directory( not root).

ls -dlR */

To see owner with subdirectories and permissions

ls -dl ‘find /var -type d’

To see the owner of folders

ls -dl `find /var -type d` | grep -v root

Moving files

mv filename.txt directoryname

Moving files by specifying absolute path

mv sneakers.txt /home/dogger/filename.txt /home/dogger/directoryname

Removing files

rm -i filename

To display the type of file

file filename

To display the contents of a file

cat filename

You can also use cat to create file use:

cat > filename

Parameters used for cat

-b Display lines with text in numbered format.

-n Numbers each line in the file.

-s convert the blank lines in file into single line.

-T Removes tab and replace it with ^I.

Who dominates the Internet?

The entire internet is run by only a few giants. We will understand this fact when we just analyze what we are doing online. The entire web is considered the storage of information. Who are the driving forces behind these? Who gives us access to them all? The major force behind the web is Google. Google has dominated the internet than anybody else. The Google search box is what a user believes in more than anything. To visit a website, to get the meaning of a word, to buy a book, to download a software, music, games, and access anything on the internet Google is the most trusted source. Google is the starting point of search for millions of users. Everybody comes only second to it.

Google is the search power that dominates the web world. There are many other companies who want to snatch this from Google. They have tried a lot and lot and are still trying to match the services offered by Google. The companies that got effected by Google are mostly Yahoo! and Microsoft. Yahoo has become a unstable company because of Google! Yahoo started well as a directory search engine, drives millions of users to its website, became the most popular company on the internet, and somehow has lost its focus now, because of Google. The magical power of pagerank has sinked the giant into a black hole. The other company that is trying to keep up with Google is Microsoft. Microsoft is now miles away from Google. They are not in a situation to do any miracles online. They have created some great softwares for PCs, but online applications from Microsoft has not tasted success since the emergence of Google. They have provided lot of services, but with less creativity and the result is that either they are short lived or are not purposeful.
Microsoft has not studied the online world like PCs. They still did not understand the fact that more than brain power they need more creativity to attract users to their services. That is the reason why even many other small online applications become a success Microsoft fails. Twitter is a online tweeting. The site is simple and the idea is creative and purposeful. Twitter is now one of the most powerful messaging services now. Millions of users now access Twitter to share their tweets with friends and the world. Twitter is an example of how a simple and useful idea can take the world by storm. Microsoft fails to understand this fact.

Rapidshare is a gaint file hosting service. The service that rules the web next to Google is, Rapidshare. Rapidshare is the house of millions of files. Rapidshare is mainly user powered, even if users have to pay for hosting and sharing their files. Rapishare has enough power to retain its position as the #1 destination for downloading softwares, games, books, movies, music, DVDs, and CDs. You can find almost evey digital good you want in Rapidshare. Rapidshare is one of the high traffic sites in the world. Millions of people share and download files from Rapidshare everyday. Even if it is a payed service they allow limited downloading for free and also offers free accounts from time to time so that users will get a chance to join their service for free. There are many other file hosting services like Megaupload, but they still are not able to reach where Rapidshare is now. Undoubtfully, the service that offers users everything they need and the major force that make people beleive the web is still a free country is Rapidshare.

Youtube is a free video sharing website. YouTube has a very powerful video streaming technology that allow millions of online users with a medium broadband connection to enjoy music, movies, and tutorial videos online. Youtube has become the major player in online video sharing only within a few years. Now when we say video sharing online it is Youtube. Youtube allows users to upload videos  and share them with the world for free. Youtube is owned by Google now and is undoubtedly the best video sharing site online. You can find videos about anything and everything in Youtube. There are no barriers, you can share videos in any language, based on anything, and as a result Youtube has millions of videos from around the world. The success of Youtube is based on the fact that it is also user-driven with millions of users uploading their videos and millions of users visiting it, Youtube is clearly second to none in case of popularity and is also a prime force ruling the web.

Wikipedia is the ultimate destination for your queries. If you have a doubt in your mind about anything instead of looking in Britanicca encyclopedia, you can look in Wikipedia, the largest user contributed, and the worlds largest encyclopedia in the world. Wikipedia is where you can quench you thirst for knowledge. It has answers for everything you want to know about the world, people, science, technology, sports, arts , culture, and so on. The articles in Wikipedia are written by its users. They are all free and you can also contribute the Wikipedia and become a writer for an encyclopedia. You can also edit what others write if you find some mistake. Wikipedia also offers thousands of books for free from its another venture Wiki Books. As time passes Wiki Books will be your ultimate destination for textbooks and study materials. Moreover, Wikipedia is a great reference material with millions of articles and answers for your questions. Clearly, Wikipedia is where your voyage for knowledge may start or end. Wikipedia has pioneered the information revolution in the web and is also a front-runner that shrinks the web to few sites.

E-bay is the most prominent auction site in the world. It has everything you want to bid on from pearls to airplanes. E-bay is something that monetized the web like no other. It made the web a bidding platform. It offers powerful tools for users to take part and manage bids. It has dominated the web like no other e-commerce company has done before. It started the wave of e-commerce on the internet. It unleashed the greatest potential of the web and make it a money-spinner. E-bay now is the largest auction platform on the earth. E-bay is powered by its great technology and infrastructure that is unmatched. It provides users a unique place to sell, bid, and buy anything they like. E-bay is also a website with purpose and great vision that enchanted web users and attracted users to it like a honeypot and is clearly a driving force on the internet.

Amazon is the biggest bookseller in the world. It is where you can find any book you want to buy on the earth. Amazon has a great respiratory of not only books but also electronic goods, toys, games, home appliances, and lot more. It is one of the biggest online store in the world. Millions of users visit Amazon to buy books and other goods. It is one of the most trusted stores online. The success of Amazon attributes to the fact that it was started with great vision and supported by great technology and affiliate network. It is where millions of users search and buy goods online everyday. It has become the trusted source for buying and selling goods online and has won the hearts of millions of users. Amazon clearly is a traffic snatcher on the internet.

Blogging is a great opportunity for millions of people to share what they know. Blogs are different from many other services. It offers users with their own web logs to write content. Any body can start a web log. WordPress and Blogger are two giants in the world of blogging. These two blogging platforms host millions of blogs. Blogs are hot bed of activities. It is where millions of users with vast range of taste blogs about anything and everything like. Blogs are high traffic generating, rich information based service on the internet. WordPress is a huge user pulling blogging platform highly SEO optimized and attracts millions of users everyday. Blogger also offers free blogging service and there are millions of blogs at blogger. Blog search engines alone underlines the vast information that spread around millions of blogs. Technorati and Google Blog search are some of the popular blog search engines. WordPress and Blogger blogs definitely share among themselves millions of users everyday and they are definitely are rulers of the web.

The web is a huge community and generally there are lot of people who are searching the web to find information about something. The potential of the web is immense and then one feature that unleashed another great potential of the web is social community website. Community websites changed the web into a more familiar territory and played a major role in drawing millions of users to the web even if they did not have any particular interest in surfing the web or technology. This is because community sites allowed people to connect with their loved ones, those who are miles away from them, who were old friends of them. It allowed them to share their ideas, thoughts, images, videos, tastes, and interests with others and make friends with them. This has made the web unique again and with community websites like Facebook became the part of a common mans daily living. Community websites made web more closer to life. These websites knowingly or unknowingly offered millions of users a space for themseleves in the online world. Facebook as mentioned above is one of the pioneers in community powered websites. These websites have a very different structure, instead of sharing information users are allowed to share anything from their thoughts, writings, images, or videos. It has no restrictions on what to share, discuss or write. It is where you can indulge and immerse in a social world. Facebook is the most popular community website now and is attracting millions of users all around the world. Few other community sites like myspace and orkut, are also attracting millions of users and clearly they are the crowd pullers and the rulers of the web.

Photobucket is a photosharing website. Photobucket is where millions of users upload and share their photos online everyday. Photobucket now has millions and millions of photos and is the one of the biggest photo hosting and photo sharing site in the world. The users can create a free account with Photobucket and start uploading images. They also offer premium photo sharing services. You can create image sideshows, rate photos, edit images and so on with photobucket. With millions of photos added to it and thousands of users joining it everyday, Photobucket is unarguably one of the user attracting and traffic generating site on the web. Flickr is another photo sharing site with the same reputation as Photobucket. It is governing the photo sharing online like Photobucket and offers great photo sharing for free. Flickr is owned by Yahoo and is clearly a traffic-puller.
The above are few websites I think is dominating the web like no other. I just tried to analyze the factors behind some of the traffic snatching sites in the world. I just want to know how they become giants in the world of computing. I just want to understand the factors that played a major role in their success. The thing is that it definitely is not just money alone. More than money there are few thing that make them the emperors and rulers of the web, that make them crowd-pullers. My assumptions about their success are the following things
1. Great vision
2. Novel technologies.
3. Great Ideas.
4. User generated content.
5. Vast collection of information.
6. Amazing Creativity.
7. Offer free services.
8. Understands the diverse needs of users.
9. Allows users freedom to share.
10. Quality service.
I have just mentioned my own thoughts about the web and the internet, the forces behind it. The entire information we need spreads around thousand of websites. These websites in one way or the other are the door ways for these information. That is the why they are huge success. For example Youtube allows users to embed videos and we see Youtube videos in many websites. It attributes to the success of Youtube in a great way. Flickr and Photobucket sideshows can be embedded in web pages. Blogger blogs and WordPress blogs contains vast information and they are free services. They offer services matched by any premium hosting service. So high quality service and freedom to share made above websites a great success. There are many other services like bookmarking websites that attracts millions of users. The contents in these websites are also user generated. They also have the ability to get more visitors and act as pointers to many websites and quality content. This post is just my opinion on who rules the web and this is not the ultimate list of websites ruling the web. Hope more and more web services will emerge and rule the web.

Spam mails in PDF format.

Spamming and spam mails are a great threat to the security of internet. Once mails containing embedded images are considered spam. But it is time to change this belief. Spam mails may also occur in the form of pdf documents.

Spam mails in the form of pdf documents have increased a lot in the past few years. PDF documents are considered safe mostly because it is the format used for creating office documents and e-books. So internet users are generally not hesitant in opening such documents. Spammers are taking advantage of this weakness of surfers. It is a common instinct to believe what is told in a pdf document than a document in HTML format or other formats, just because of its “official” status pdf format have achieved over the years.
Spam mails in pdf formats are generally targeted towards users interested in share market.There are a number of pump and dump packs that will “educate” users about the current boom that is going to happen to a particular share and the huge benefit users can make by investing on these shares. These documents have nice and beautiful layout and are well organized. So most users believe the “confidential” document they have received and become victims. Once the share values of the fake company increases the real people behind the company sell their shares for huge profit and the users who buy these shares lost their money.
The spammers once used embedded images to beat spam filters. But the spam filters have improved a lot over the years and most of the spam mails are blocked efficiently by them. So for spammers, they need a new way to survive and using pdf format to send spam mails is the way they find. Moreover, since pdf documents are used for creating office documents and is the most popular document format on the internet the success rate of spam mails is also huge compared to old spam mails.So be careful and think for a second time before believing what is said in a pdf mail you received.

How to make a autorun CD/DVD?

You can make any of your CDs DVDs to run automatically. I will tell you how to make a CD or DVD to run automatically immediately when you start it. It is a very useful feature. Also this is the way many viruses enter into your PC.
Autorun.inf is simply an information file that is associated with the autorun function of a CD or DVD. It tells the operating system which executable to start, which icon to use, and which additional menu commands to be displayed. So in order to make a CD or DVD to run automatically then you need a autorun.inf file.

When you insert an CD or DVD into a drive then if the “Auto insert notification” feature is enabled , Windows checks in the new disk’s root directory for the existence of an “autorun.inf” file. If such a file exists then it will execute the commands written in that file.
Creating Autorun CDs/DVDs
An autorun.inf file can be used to create autorun CDS/DVDs.By creating such a file you can do the following:
1. Make a program or file in the CD/DVD to start automatically.
2. Use a custom icon for your CD/DVD instead of the default icon.
3. Manipulate the menu commands to be displayed when the user clicks on the icon.
Creating autorun.inf file.
A simple autorun file looks like this
[autorun]
open=autorun.exe
icon=autorun.ico
Here [autorun] is a directive that must be included.In the second line the keyword open describes which file is to be opened on autorun.The keyword icon is used to describe the image to be used as icon of your CD/DVD.
Adding additional menu items.
In order to add additional menu items to your disc you can use the shell command. The syntax looks like this shell\help=&Help
shell\help\command = notepad help.txt. Here the first line shell\help=&Help
adds a new menu item named Help and the second line
shell\help\command=notepad help.txt defines the operation to be performed when we click on this item.

I hope you enjoyed the post!