Disk Emulation software won't enable

Good morning,
I had great help from Kestrel 13! w redirect malware dumped on my laptop from showtimeanytime of all places, when I installed their plug in. Or maybe it was Java? Not sure but it all started when I was trying to take advantage of 3 free months of showtime. (hm)

I am running Windows 8, Firefox as my browser, which is up to date. AVG anti virus saw it, tried to block it during the download, but it got on anyway.

Not sure what other info you need but I'd be glad to provide it.

I followed the READ ME FIRST thread, attached my logs. Kestrel 13! helped me. Everything went smoothly and my machine was again clean. Then when we were doing the final steps, taking off all your tools, my defogger could not open the file to enable my disc emulation software.

I downloaded a new copy from the bleeping computer site and ended up w a proxy server block, which poor Kestrel 13! needed to then help me remove. He said that is a safe download site but it went wrong.

Long story..... but my machine is clean! I've run the MG tools and everything is off, except AGAIN, I could not successfully run the defogger. (step 2 below)

"Renable your Disk Emulation software with Defogger if you had disabled it in step 4 of the READ & RUN ME."

So, my question is: Do I need to enable this software? What will happen if I don't? I am nervous about any downloads after my experience.

Also, I'd love your opinion about Java and Adobe, whether or not I can live without them on my laptop since they seem to be susceptible to malware.

Thank you for your help!

Sue

The thread I was talking about for reference....

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1849980#post1849980

 

I currently have 8 computers in our house. Only one has Java and I have it disabled. None of the three windows 7 computers has ever had it installed. I have yet to find anything that refuses to work. If I do, I will go to the one computer that has it installed.

As far as Adobe, if you are referring to the reader to read pdf documents, it is ine of the first things I remove from a computer. I use Sumatra http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/sumatra_pdf.html
and it has a setting so it is integrated into FF so I can read pdf files online without downloading, if I wish.
I've even figured out how to replace the bright yellow background with a color of my choice.

My advice, uninstall both of those.

 

sberkkoch, plodr is right on the money, my wife is a school teacher and she uses Sumatra for all her work, and when I read a pdf I just use the latest Firefox (26.0) which has a pdf reader built into it

 

Thanks plodr and Nick. I'll uninstall both programs and look into Sumatra!

What are your thoughts about Flash Player? Or will that come off with the adobe uninstall?

I wonder if either of you--or anyone--knows about the disc emulation software and my inability to enable it again, or if I need to?

Thanks,

Sue

 

Too many things use it to remove it BUT keep it up to date for Internet Explorer (even if you never use IE) and any other browser you might use.
It is patched every patch Tuesday when windows is patched (the 2nd Tuesday of the month).

Links so you do not get bloat installed with the flash plugins.
IE (except for Win 8) http://download.macromedia.com/get/...sing/win/install_flash_player_11_active_x.exe
Non IE http://download.macromedia.com/get/...ensing/win/install_flash_player_11_plugin.exe

The current version is 11.9.900.170 and was released on 10 Dec. 2013.

 

Thanks Kestrel 13! I took a chance and downloaded it. The new version still said it 'could not open the file' ..to enable my software.

Not sure if I need to continue to trouble shoot this or not. What do you think?

Sue

 

I'll uninstall the flash player and adobe air (= bloat I think) and use your link.

Thank you!

Sue

 

Do you actually have disk emulation software installed? eg. Daemon Tools, Alcohol 120, Gizmo Drive, MagicDisc, Virtual CloneDrive, Phantom CD, etc

 

When I was working through the READ ME post, Defogger told me it had disabled it all, so I'd assumed I had disc emulation software installed. I searched disc emulation software online--the definition of it--but never checked specifically to see if I had it or not! I took it at face value.

I do not have any program listed that you mentioned in your post! Problem solved!

Thank you nullptr and Kestrel 13!

My laptop is lightning fast and working well.

Happy Holidays!

Sue

 

I'm 100% with plodr on this one. I totally uninstalled Java about 3 months ago and can't remember running into anything that required it that I needed to see. Adobe Acrobat Reader is obviously and unashamedly boated and slow. I too use Sumatra and find it fast and very capable... except for the eyeball-burning yellow background color. Changing the background color is simple enough

1. Open Sumatra
2. Click on 'Settings'
3. Click 'Advanced Options'

You'l be presented with a text-based configuration file with the first few lines showing this:

# For documentation, see http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/settings2.4.html

MainWindowBackground = #80fff200
EscToExit = false
ReuseInstance = false
FixedPageUI [
TextColor = #000000
BackgroundColor = #ffffff
SelectionColor = #f5fc0c
WindowMargin = 2 4 2 4
PageSpacing = 4 4

The last 6 characters of #80fff2000 is the hex based color code that determines the background color. Either download an html color picker or just fool around with the six characters until you find a more suitable color (pretty much anything).

 

Sorry, I put an extra "0" in that last referenced hex code. Also, for those not familiar with hexadecimal code, valid characters to use for changing the aforementioned code are 0-9 and a-f.

 

rustysavage, you are making it hard.
Go to Programs and right click on Sumatra and select Properties
In the Target line after the exe" add a space then the following

Code:

-bg-color #xxxxxx

Note: xxxxxx gets replaced with the codes given on this site
http://html-color-codes.com/
examples: EBC79E is tan
CCFFCC is pale green
A8CFFF is light blue

 

I am an Olympic level expert at making things harder than they have to be, especially for myself Thanks for the clarification. But what will I do with the rest of my morning now?

 

:celebrate

 

Whoops, meant to reply here. Thank you again for all your help!

Merry! merry!

 

I'm sure your wife has a "honey-do" list posted somewhere.
I post a list on the fridge for my husband. No time frame. He can decide what he feels like doing and when. Right now it is cold (in the 20's with wind chills in the teens) and snowing which means it is too cold to even work in the garage on some projects. Then in a bizarre twist, it is supposed to be almost 60 on Sunday!

 

Sounds like you live in the muddy Midwest. My wife makes plenty of honey-do lists for me but strangely enough... the dog keeps eating them. rolleyes

 

It's great. I went w the pale blue. Thanks again.

Sue

 

Nope not even close. East coast all my life. We don't have a dog so that excuse won't fly here. :-D