Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Malwarebytes - Anti-Malware 2.0.3 Release

I had purchased the full (lifetime upgrade deal) of Malwarebytes’ Premium product.

It does great duty to my other AV/AM lines of defense.

The fresh interface works great and I don’t have many complaints. Although the application (not DAT file) updating seems to need some work I guess.

A new version was released some time back and despite much patience and waiting I never saw the product update. Forum info suggests they push updates out in a controlled manner…but I’m not clear on that process.

History of Product Releases, Updates & Fixes (change logs) - Malwarebytes

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0.3 Released - Malwarebytes Forum

So eventually I gave up and downloaded the latest package manually (note link fires a download dialog box!) and “over-installed” it on my current version.

It went on clean and is now “upgraded”.

FYI.

--Claus Valca

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Alister joins Tatiana

LE-pc08OK.  Been super-duper busy here at the Valca micro-ranch. Full weekends and long nights at the grindhouse and sacred-space.

However, last weekend I had a good excuse…I was setting up a new laptop named “Alister” to join my primary laptop “Tatiana”.

GSD readers may recall that Tatiana was the very first “higher-end” personal computer I allowed myself to splurge on: A Dell Named Tatiana. It is a 15” Dell Studio laptop with an Intel i7 processor with a 500 MB drive and full 1080 hi-def display (still gorgeous after all these years!).

What are my thoughts on it after just over 4 years?

Well, it still seems like a fresh-off-the-showroom-floor system. The i7 processor continues to chew up anything I toss at it with barely a bump on the processor load. The BIOS has been upgraded a few times but has all the virtualization support features to keep my VM’s running nice. The display is stunning.  I absolutely love the 15” size factor. It is easy to dump into my SwissGear tech backpack and go. I love the fact the keyboard doesn’t have an extra number-pad on it. A new video driver update for it finally fixed an audio issue I was having and the sound quality is top-notch.

Cons? There aren’t that many.  The system only will support a max of 8 GB System RAM so there is that limitation that really makes running multiple VM’s a hassle, or running a single VM and then doing some memory-demanding app work on the host system at the same time a challenge. That is my biggest current “complaint”.  I’ve still not upgraded from the stock 500 GB OEM hard drive. I’ve been waiting for the prices of 1TB SSD drives to come down more before upgrading. I can manage the existing space OK with off-loading VM’s to a 1.5 TB USB drive. It doesn’t have Blu-Ray player. Not a deal-breaker but I do have a number of fav. disks in Blu-Ray format that I can’t enjoy on the go with it (and I don’t want to download new digital ones from iTunes/etc.).  I did grab a few bundled digital downloads off the physical disks when we go that option so I do have a nice selection to carry with me but…see note about HDD space management. Oh, it doesn’t get “hot” but despite regular cleaning of the cooling system, the fan noise is fairly loud.  I can tune it out after 4 years of practice but when I do notice it, it is there. More like an oscillating fan on medium.

So what has this to do with “Alister”?

Well quite some time ago, little bro splurged on a high-end Dell Alienware desktop system to satisfy his hard-core gaming needs.  After some time he decided he no longer needed (or was using) his Dell laptop and passed it down to me.

What did I adopt?

A vintage 2012 Dell XPS 17” L702X laptop…almost maxed out.  After much work and rebuilding, it has been christened “Alister” after the Last Exile anime series character Alister Agrew who was Tatiana Wisla’s navigator. Seemed appropriate since we still refer to my red Studio laptop as “Tatiana”.

So here are some notes for future reference and the curious who wonder how additional tweaks can be made.

The very first decision I needed to make was how I was going to use the laptop.  It never crossed my mind to replace my primary (and beloved) Studio laptop Tatiana with the XPS system. Instead, I decided I would use the XPS as a field work-horse system. Instead of tucking Tatiana into my go-bag for personal service calls and out-and-about runs, she would stay safely at home. In its place, the laptop Alister would be drafted into service for demanding service runs, network discovery and service jobs, and to do the heavy lifting when it came to primary virtual machine hosting.

With that settled, I had some work to do.

The XPS system is great in that it offers a lot more upgrade flexibility.  It too has an Intel i7 processor and (though initially as handed to me loaded with 8 GB OEM system RAM) can support up to 16 GB RAM. It has a Blu-Ray player. And it came stock from bro with a dual-HDD bay; present were two matched 7200 RPM 500 GB Samsung drives. Oh, I almost forgot. It has two USB 3.0 SS ports! The 15” Studio laptop doesn’t; and I now have three different 1.5+ TB USB drives that can support USB 3.0. So I can finally take full advantage of them.

So, first we address the hardware situation.

I decided that per Crucial and Speccy and the Dell Service manuals, I would pick up two more 4 GB RAM sticks and cheaply upgrade to 16 GB RAM.  I would also sacrifice one of the 500 GB HDD to down-upgrade to a 250 GB SSD drive which would become my system drive and use the other 500 GB HDD as my data drive.

Only…guess what? I quickly learned that this Dell XPS 17” L702X model is notoriously confusing when it comes to supported RAM configurations.

A very long-story summarized, depending on the graphics “board” option selected for the L702X, if the 3D display is chosen, then you have 4 DIMM slots for RAM.  If not, then you only have 2 DIMM slots for RAM. Despite there being no Dell documentation as to that fact and despite Crucial scanner and other hardware identification tools all reporting my laptop had 4 DIMM slots. Open it up and you can only find 2 DIMM slots.  Crushed (momentarily) were my plans for a 16 GB RAM system.

However, there was hope…forums were filled with accounts of others who worked out that -- despite it not being documented -- assured you can drop two 8 GB DIMMS into the system and get 16 GB RAM anyway. There was also a YouTube video confirming the same.

As I said, the Crucial (my go-to brand for memory) website only auto sensed a 4 DIMM model but with some clever searching I found both 2-DIMM and 4-DIMM options (linked above)…neither of which showed me a 16-GB RAM option.

Knowing buying of two 8 GB sticks was going to me much more pricey than planned, but commited anyhow, I decided to see if I could trial the configuration before purchase.

(Laptop in tow) I headed down and about an hour’s drive from home into the new Micro Center Houston/West Loop store in Houston.

The sales tech working the counter listed as I explained my case. He looked up online and consulted with a senior associate and they both agreed that my system had 4 DIMM slots. So I opened it up and showed them the two only slots. After some testing they confirmed it was just 2 DIMM slots. More Google work (that I had already covered first) led them to the conclusion that two 8 GB sticks “should” work fine. Understanding my concern about buying RAM and then getting home to find it didn’t work,the MicroCenter staff cheerfully (nay gleefully!) agreed to my request to trial fit/run two Crucial 8 GB sticks in it before purchase. A quick swap in and reboot and 16 GB RAM was reported in the BIOS. Success.

Here is what I purchased for the curious:

I also picked up a Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250 GB drive that was on sale.

Again, the amazing good MicroCenter sales rep listed to my geek-talk regarding the system and advised me to go with the “bare” box SSD drive rather than the kit box. The kit box contains some extra software and an SATA to USB hardware dongle to make transfer of data/system from one drive to another more easy. He recognized that since I was doing a bare OS load I didn’t need to pay the extra $10-15 for the “kit” version.

Wallet considerably lighter after these purchases, I drove home and got to work. Note for the curious; MicroCenter rocks for geeks. The new store is super flashy and a pain to get on and off the freeway to, but it’s worth the visit and journey. For another’s opinion see D.Silverman’s Inside Micro Center’s new Houston store post via the TechBlog.

Drive swap went flawlessly back home. RAM was already upgraded in the store. I was amazed how light the SSD felt in comparison to the HDD drive I removed. Isn’t technology grand!

I first loaded the Windows 10 Technical Preview x64 OS on it. It went on super-fast and worked wonderfully for a few days. I really love the Win 10 OS so far and though I may not do an immediate upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10 on Tatiana, I would have no concerns or qualms if I had to recommend Win 10 or do an upgrade to one of my systems. Lavie’s laptop will be getting it immediately when released as her Win 8.1 still causes her considerable fussing. Anyway, it picked up almost all the drivers needed for the system and I found the few I still needed under Win 8 support worked fine.  Oh. It booted from shutdown to login screen in about 10 seconds. Serious. The BIOS load was the slowest part! SSD’s rock.

However, I then got greedy and manually tossed on a new build pre-release of Win 10 TP.

That resulted in breaking my network connections and Wi-Fi entirely. All attempts to reload the driver to get it working failed. It was noted in the blog post above but that’s the ropes when you fiddle with pre-release software.

In the end, I decided I needed stability and dependability for this particular system. Luckily, bro was kind and had well-treated the OEM Win 7 Ultimate sticker on the bottom of the laptop. Win 7 Ultimate x64 it was.

I did have to get the ISO for it, but that wasn’t an issue.

Boom. Fresh OS load from scratch, a quick and flawless phone activation was required with Microsoft, done. Activated!

Then another 1/2+ day was taken up with OS updates, Office 2010 install and updates, SSD management software from Samsung loaded and re-tweaked for performance.  And many more driver headaches under Win 7 than Win 10 TP.  Boot time was much slower to desktop…maybe 30 seconds now up from 10 seconds. Oh well.

Most driver issues were resolved and cleared by just hitting the Dell Support page for the XPS 17 L702X model.

I said “most”. The hardest driver issues to deal with are listed below and were not easily cleared.

That turned out to be the free-fall sensor. And it needed this driver to clear: ST Microelectronics DE351DL Motion Sensor Driver Driver Details | Dell US

The other weird one was that under Win 10 TP, my USB 3.0 ports worked flawlessly. Under Win 7? nothing. Nada. Dead.

Much much work later I got them going.

Turns out it took a multi-step process.  I had downloaded the correct Renesas drivers from the Dell site, but ended up needing these.

THEN I needed to go into the OS settings and turn off all the power-management settings for the USB ports to allow them to run full out with no power management options enabled.

THEN I found a Renesas program had been installed in my program list and running that came a configuration tool that allowed me to turn off a power-management option from within that app also.

FINALLY my USB 3.0 ports were able to pick up my 2 TB Seagate Slim USB external drive and power it and transfer data at the full SS rate.

Sigh.

Last issue I had was that I could not, not ever, never-ever get the silly Logitech SetPoint software to run on the laptop. Seriously Logitech? What gives?!  I’ve done more than a few posts here at GSD over the years fussing with your software! not the Web-driven install, not the manual install, nothing!

I finally got it on thanks to a command-line install trick I found. Installing it that way FROM THE SAME EXECUTABLE THAT WOULDN’T OTHERWISE RUN!

I love you “Katy05”. I’m married but I would buy you a cup of coffee or tea at Starbucks any day.

Her solution:

Try to reinstall SetPoint by following the steps below:

  1. Download and save (do not run) the exe file of the software installer onto your desktop.
  2. Open a Run box by pressing the Windows key and the letter R.
  3. Type in the location and name of SetPoint, i.e. C:\username\desktop\Setpoint6.65.62_64.exe /S (Note: There is a space between exe and the forward slash.)
  4. Press Enter.

The installation window will then come up and should let you finish the process.

    Worked perfectly and full mouse control and option settings are available now.

    Dell XPS L702x reference manuals & Stuff

    So…Alister runs super-quiet. I don’t think the fan ever kicks on (yes it does and it’s not broken), the 16 GB was a naughty splurge that I don’t regret for an instant. And the Evo SSD drive rocks my world! Amazing. I’m definitely making all my future HDD upgrades SSD’s. Now if the 1TB EVSO drive can just price drop some more so Tatiana can be upgraded…she is a bit jealous I think.

    For the curious via Speccy:

    hh5hxk2k.42b

    Photos may follow later if I’m really bored.

    Cheers!

    --Claus Valca

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    Saturday, October 04, 2014

    New and Improved Utilities

    Network Stuff Found and Updated

    Which brings me back to the pretty cool Windows “firewall” application GlassWire. Previously featured via tinyapps.org, I spotted a new review of it that had some fresh examples of its usefulness; illustrating alert event marking for later examination. In one case, it helped a user discover network activity from malware that had gone undetected.

    Then in those comments there was a reference to the KDE application KNemo - Network Monitor.

    Utilities of Usefulness

    • AOMEI PE Builder - I’m always keeping one eye open on new WinPE building tools and this seems useful for the non-tech crowd who may not be up to taking on a project from the WinBuilder tool or one of the many specialized building sets at reboot.pro. For someone just getting their feet wet, this might be a good place to get started.
    • OPSWAT AppRemover - I keep rediscovering this tool every year or so. It is updated regularly and can aid in the removal of many Supported Applications. Good for a first-pass on a new OEM system.
    • GEGeek Tech Toolkit - Considering the work I do finding and maintaining all the tools and utilities on my own USB stick, this seems like a cheat, but if you are lazy, here you go. Related are the NirLauncher package builder and KLS Soft’s WSCC - Windows System Control Center (also update to version 2.3.0.1 as of Sept 2014).
    • OpenSaveFilesView - NirSoft - new utility that displays files previously opened with the open/save dialog box. More on NirBlog.  Spotted via this Betanews post.
    • FixWin v 2 for Windows 8, Windows 8.1 - The Windows Club - Easy but powerful tool to fix common Windows issues. Use with caution. Similar tool may be (the no longer developed but still available) d7 Free tool from Foolish IT LLC.

    Lights, Sound, Action!

    Cheers,

    Claus Valca

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    Windows 10 (TP version) it is…

    OK, so at first we thought it might be “Win 9” but the TP name is now known to be “Windows 10”.

    Why 10? Well speculation continues, but the most logical explanation put forward (which in the InterWeb of things means it must be totally Photo shopped) is that some software coding looks for Win 95/98 versions with a wildcard routine…so Windows 9 might trip it and muck things up worse.

    So there you go.

    Also for the tinfoil hat wearers out there, be aware that the Windows 10 TP version EULA from Microsoft contains some strong usage/behavior monitoring should you decide to download, install, and accept the privilege of running it.

    Windows 10 TP “Privacy Statements” PSA

    Windows 10 Technical Preview: Data protection declaration allows Microsoft to collect almost any data (GTranslated) - Caschys Blog.

    Want to read it for yourself directly from Microsoft?

    Also, if your PC runs into problems, Microsoft will likely examine your system files. If the privacy of your system files is a concern, consider using a different PC. For more info, read our privacy statement.

    Data We Collect

    Microsoft collects many kinds of information in a variety of ways in order to operate effectively and provide you the best products, services and experiences we can. We may combine this data with information that is linked to your user ID, such as information contained in your Microsoft account.

    When you acquire, install and use the Program, Microsoft collects information about you, your devices, applications and networks, and your use of those devices, applications and networks. Examples of data we collect include your name, email address, preferences and interests; browsing, search and file history; phone call and SMS data; device configuration and sensor data; and application usage. For example, when you:

    • install the Program, we may collect information about your device and applications and use it for purposes such as determining or improving compatibility,

    • use voice input features like speech-to-text, we may collect voice information and use it for purposes such as improving speech processing,

    • open a file, we may collect information about the file, the application used to open the file, and how long it takes any use it for purposes such as improving performance, or

    • enter text, we may collect typed characters and use them for purposes such as improving autocomplete and spellcheck features.

    The Program contains internet-enabled features and social functionality. When these features are used, they transmit certain standard computer information ("Standard Computer Data") to Microsoft. Standard Computer Data may include information about the Program computing environment such as IP address, network status, operating conditions and information about devices and software used with the Program.

    The Program contains internet-enabled features that transmit performance or usage information to Microsoft (“Experience Data”). Experience Data may include information about the Program’s performance and reliability, such as how quickly the Program responds when you click a button or how many problems you experience with the Program. Experience Data may also include information about your use of the Program, such as the features used most often or how frequently you launch programs. Experience Data may be collected through the use of cookies or similar technologies; learn more below.

    So, use caution and contemplation before deploying it in a production network/environment with live user-data/files.

    Of course, to Microsoft’s favor, that should be part of the “benefit” we get for first-access to their product so they can monitor and improve it for everyone.

    Just something to keep in mind.

    Moving on…to the Win 10 TP general linkage

    Installation Options for Win 10 TP

    Command Prompt feature adds in Win 10 TP

    Even Deeper Technical Features of Win 10 TP

    Start Menu and Related Features of Win 10 TP

    I’ve not yet enrolled in the “Insider” program and downloaded the Windows 10 Technical Preview bits yet, but will probably do so and run in a tightly locked down virtualized environment.

    However, if the primary feature sets revolve around the Start Menu and don’t deliver some killer kernel-level and OS enhancements, I’m probably not moving off Windows 7 anytime soon after it’s release.  Lavie will probably want it on her Win 8.1 system though…

    And so the great Windows OS experiment continues…

    Cheers!

    Claus Valca

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    TrueCrypt linkage

    tinyapps.org blog has been running a nice series of posts regarding TrueCrypt.

    I’ve been using TrueCrypt for some time now (just shy of a year) on my Windows 7 system as at the time it seemed to be the best balance of security and compatibility/recoverability for my needs.

    Again, I’m using TrueCrypt whole-disk encryption to protect the data on my laptop in case it is lost by theft or careless user misplacement. Other solutions are out there and they have their own pros/cons.

    In the aftermath of the TrueCrypt “collapse” back in May 2014, many have fled TrueCrypt and no longer trust it.

    I noted the other day a new TrueCrypt fork called CipherShed via this InfoSec Handlers Diary blog post.

    It’s worth being familiar with, but in light of the recent round of postings, I wanted to seek out the opinion of the GSD-respected tinyapps blogger regarding this fork.

    I did receive sage wisdom and was kindly pointed to this discussion:

    Just a point to consider for now while the Phase II audit process continues…

    More resources on TrueCrypt itself

    Update April 14, 2014: Phase I of the audit is complete, and report is available. Phase II begins on the formal cryptanalysis.

    I’m not a programmer so I’m just watching and listening to the discussions and audits by those professionals who are. I’ll continue to post bits as both projects move forward.

    Cheers,

    Claus Valca

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    Firefox Updates, Nirsoft Changes, and Evil Add-Ons

    Regular readers may recall a few weeks ago I was beating my head against the desk struggling with Mozilla’s SafeBrowsing changes; particularly when trying to download files from NirSoft.

    I’m still not sure why the behavior ceased, but as the FF Extension Guru pointed out in the comments, Nir Sofer had made changes to the software in an attempt to reduce false malware identification rates.

    Or it could have been a change buried in one of the rapid-fire Firefox updates released after my original posts:

    Regardless, I’ve been able to download all the NirSoft apps I need/want for updating since then with no ill effects.

    Also this week, Scott Hanselman found “evil” behavior in a Google Chrome extension he downloaded recently.

    It’s another great post on a long-running theme that you can’t automatically trust any browser add-on, be it from Mozilla, Chrome, or IE.

    As usual with most Hanselman blog posts, the comments were filled with germane information and additional resources:

    And for context, while this can impact you as an individual/private web-browser user, it could also impact enterprise browser deployments if the sysadmin policy allows for end-user installation of add-ons/browsers.

    What would be the impact if a “harmless” add-on surreptitiously was serving additional ad content in the background of web-pages? Annoyance and bandwidth impact? Probably, but if that ad content was exploited to serve malware--regardless of the add-on developer’s knowledge or not -- it could have serious implications for the security landscape at your organization!

    Just sayin’…

    Claus Valca

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    More Ubuntu Miscellaneous Goodness

    So while I was patching my Ubuntu 14.04 build I was more than a bit frustrated (still) with that Unity workspace interface.

    Are there other options?

    Yes! Indeed!

    Worked like a charm and I like much greatly.

    While hanging out there at OMG! Ubuntu (sadly I cannot find an RSS site feed), I found a lot of other neat links to waste my time with.

    I immediately snagged the new wallpapers and scandalously added them to my Windows 7 wallpaper rotation set. I live on the edge like that.

    Last week I also discovered It's F.O.S.S. which had some fun links as well

    Cheers,

    Claus Valca

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