I've always trusted my driver updates to my own hands. Their promises on the front page sound pretty nice: "keep your computer updated, takes less than 5 minutes to find your computer's missing/updated drivers,..." Don't know what harm could it do to try these, BUT they tend to have some sort of trick to it: Scanning or searching is free, but downloading the drivers or actually seeing the results is not.

I'd recommend skipping the subscriptions to these "life made easy" services and just checking once in a while if there are new driver updates available at hardware manufactorer's own sites. If your system works smoothly, there's no actual need to update, since it may do worse with the new drivers.

Ta for that. Don't know if i should start a new thread coz i've now got problems with my new computer. The 'fixed' one (above) i've given away! I could just take this new one back to the shop but i've put loads of things on it & would like to have a go at fixing it. Everything was fine until i connected to the internet. I get a message from the firewall saying, "NT Kernel & System File ntoskrnl.exe has been blocked from accessing the network. Whatever i do, i cannot stop the warning appearing. Also, when i type 'regedit' in the 'RUN' box all i get is a blank black command prompt box appearing, & it won't even allow to be typed in commands. Lastly, if i go away from the computer for 5 minutes it either switches off to the log-in usename boxes where i can just click on the name & it comes back on......or it will switch off to what looks like a black bios screen which i don't understand all the lingo on it. The bottom line tells me to PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE, no matter what key i press, nothing happens at all!!!! I then have to turn off at the on/off switch then restart, it then starts up again.

Cannot believe whats happening, would love to have 6 months trouble free computing. Even buying a new one for £850 has not acheived this goal. I hate & love computers. What about you?

Haha! quite typical. I´ve done the same thing a couple of times. Had problems with a computer, struggled for a year or two with it. When it´s finally working well, I´ve given it away and gotten a new one. Alas, no less problems but way more and new ones that are solved within the next few months.

That´s just firewall spam. As far as I know, ntoskrnl.exe doesn´t need to be allowed to the net. It depends on which firewall you´re using to what you can do about it. For example ZoneAlarm has this function to block traffic silently. Such a command or checkbox should be found somewhere in every firewall software.

I believe this is firewall related as well. Some have the function to block programs from running other programs. It shouldn´t cause such problems just to block programs from accessing the network, BUT preventing programs from running others could cause this kind of behaviour. You will have to get to know your firewall and it´s functions better. Which FW is it?

To avoid some problems add IP address 127.0.0.1 to your trusted zone.

For this check your power saving settings. There is a checkbox that asks if you want for Windows to ask password when returning from screensaver state. I think even without a set up password it will toss you to that windows login screen.

Sounds odd, but you can avoid this from your power settings. Just set all off and try what happens. Also setting your screensaver completely off will fix the other problem.

Oh well, with computers it´s never trouble-free. Just have to learn to adapt to their tricks. My motherboard just broke last week, but it worked somewhat well for the last 6 months. 30 months of guarantee still left, so no biggie. I don´t get mad anymore, just accept that computers are painful.

Maggoth i've sorted the power saving settings & it's ok now, thanks for that. I've also sorted out that annoying ntoskrnl warning but io had to do 2 things...1, create an advanced rule in SYGATE firewall & then un-tick 'allow file & printer sharing' in internet options. Have a search on the internet on this ntoskrnl problem & even the experts will get bogged down with the advice & problem solving tips given. Apparently, this ntoskrnl warning can be a real problem in some cases but this time all it was looking for is a network for file & printer sharing that my wife had not set up & completed properly. That was all it was.

However, i've encountered a further problem to do with accessing the registry. Whilst i was trying to sort out the above problem, (thinking it was a missing registry entry) i visited www.regedit.com & downloaded a trial registry scan & so called fix. This has completely taken over the computer, the registry & is slowing it down. When i go to RUN, & type in regedit, i get a black prompt screen coming up which will NOT accept commands & on the top blue info bar it writes C:WINDOWS\system32\regedit.com. When i close the box it always says NOT RESPONDING. This next one i just cannot believe!!! yesterday i ran a scan with nortons, CW shredder & spybot. The only thing that was found was Adware Aureate, file name amcis.dll tobedeleted, located in C:\WINDOWS\system32\amcis.dll_tobedeleted. System32 in windows has disappeared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nortons did not get rid of it, all it did was state that it was a threat & i don't know what to do to delete it. I've got all the bad registry entries but cannot navigate to the registry because of www.regedit.com taking over. I've even uninstalled sygate & it's not a firewall related problem at all. PLEASE DO NOT EVER DOWNLOAD SOFTWARE FROM www.regedit.com.. I can afford to take a year off to prosecute & expose them. They are a load of shitters.

Yesterday a very strange thing happened, i hope it's not strange to you (so then maybe it can be fixed) but, when i tried again & typed in 'regedit' in the 'run' box, the blank prompt box appeared as usual but this time, about 3 lines of CHINESE WRITING wrote ITSELF into the command. I then got a windows warning saying 'You have written an illegal instruction'. I didn't even touch the keypad!!! I'm going to persevere with finding out how to remove Adware Aureate & will no doubt succeed, but this www.regedit ******'s thing i'm not too sure. I'm definitely going to prosecute them.

Don't mention it, I'm just glad it worked.

The net's useful, but full of s**t. This is one of the reasons to NOT to try those life-made-easy tools. There are quite a few that work and do their job. Good feedback only heard about Registry mechanic for example.

UNINSTALL and remove the software you got from www-regedit-com, run some spyware scanner, then some usable and honest registry tool. A good place to get such things is http://www.majorgeeks.com/ (one of my fav sites, mostly because of the name :lol: )

My bet is on the www-regedit-com as well. That s**t may be hard to clean so you might be facing a straight clean Windows install, again. I'm forced to underline this one: You really should be more careful about what you install to your computer! If you haven't heard anything about the programs you're considering to install, try to find some recommendations (actual person written words, not just some advertise crap) on the software first.

That jungle language on command is probably due to low grade coding. Some bit of faulty code was run on your regedit launch and you got an error message from it. Nothing more. If I were you, I'd do a clean install and watch out next time. There's no guarantee that you or any tool can remove all malicious code and messed-up bits from the regedit.com-software. It has probably done way more than just added some chinese to your command scripts.

And whatever you do, Don't try to run 'regedit' before the computer's in order again...

Would chill out a bit on the prosecution side. Although, if you live in USA I hear sueing is a great way to make some pocket change. In this case, can only see it as a waste of time, effort and money, either way the outcome.

you can bet you bottom dollar that you clicked yes to a license agreement that told you excatually what crap programs you were installing on you computer thats how they get away with it ,You didn't read it and said yes I bet !!!
Here is a very good program to read the agreement and tell you if it contained crap.from a legit site .called EulAlyser
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/

Yes Caperjack you are correct, i did not read the agreement! Thanks i will check those links you gave. Maggoth i had already uninstalled the software from regedit.com but it's obviously not all been removed. If you visit the site it does look genuine enough & i vaguely remember using the software before with no problems. Times have obviously changed.

Just one question, if i have to do a fresh install i have not got the original windows XP disk to use as it is damaged. I do have a couple of genuine disks can i use one of these instead. One of them is even sealed in the packet & never been used as it came with the puter upstairs (which already had everything installed from either the manufacturers or the PC shop) when bought new. They obviously did not use the disk that they gave with the puter coz it's all sealed up like i said. Could i use this windows XP installation disk to do a fresh install on this puter without any snags?

YIPPEE! I've fixed both problems. No fresh install required. For other folk who get these problems either with Adware.Aureate or with regedit.com taking over & preventing access to the registry & adding 'spontaneous magic script' into a command prompt when trying to use 'regedit' in the 'run' box.......here goes....it's easy! I'll do regedit first.

Go to 'Folder options' in control panel & tick box to show hidden files & folders. Navigate to drive C Windows system32 & you will see a coloured icon saying "regedit.com" (this will still be there AFTER you have uninstalled their software). Double click on it & you will get THAT COMMAND PROMPT BOX coming up...(the same one when you try to access the registry). Right click & you will see in 'properties' that the date created was 2004 & then modified whatever date you downloaded the software. You get a warning that it is a Windows system folder & that a program or even your computer may not work properly. Probably, this is a standard warning coz it's something in system32? Get rid of it. Do a search (showing hidden files & folders) for regvr32 & advert.dll & delete them. Then go to Microsoft site & you will find a list of a few registry entries that may be there. Delete them. On the Microsoft site on the same page there is a FIX for this regedit.com preventing you accessing the registry, i downloaded it but it didn't work. Anyway you won't need it coz you're sorted now.

Adware.Aureate was quite easy to get rid of. i did a search for "aureate" & it came up with 102 zipped identical folders & found 2 things in c windows Recycler. Delete them all & reboot, don't connect to internet. Then do a search (showing hidden files) for amcis.dll there are amcis 1, 2 & 3 of these, one of them will be called amcis.dll_tobedeleted thats the one that tricks your anti virus scan from leaving YOU to delete it manually! Delete them all. Just for good measure do a search for 'radiate', it's the same thing but i got no results for this. Go to c windows recycler folder & you may have a couple of Aureate things to get rid of, but not the recycler default of course. Check in auto complete coz it may also put itself there too.
Finally, go to www.securemost.com & you will find some registries to delete, but if you do the above 1st you will find they have all gone.
Thanks Caperjack & Maggoth, sorry it's a bit long-winded but i hope i help a novice like myself from having to do a fresh install every time something is askew.

All sorted! But would love to still find out (in previous post) if it's possible to use a Windows XP installation disk that came with another puter & do a fresh install on another? Coz the one for this is broken Cheers!

Hi, I'm experiencing the same problem. What kind of Computer are you running on?

Hans Germann

Don't expect a quick answer as this thread is one tear old .