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June, 2015

AVG Anti-Virus – Stuck on Starting Windows

We have noticed a large number of calls yesterday and today in relation to users on Windows 7 where the computer sits stuck on a “Starting Windows” page. The common denominator between all of these incidents is that the computers had AVG Anti-Virus installed.

Whilst we wait on AVG getting back to us with news on this issue we have been resolving these incidents by booting the computers in to Safe Mode, un-installing AVG completely, then booting back into Windows in normal mode before reinstalling AVG.

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This is not the first time Anti-Virus programs have caused catastrophic issues with Windows PCs. In April 2010 a McAfee pushed out an update that caused a false positive identification, and incorrect deletion, of the critical Windows system file svchost.exe.

Edinburgh based IT Support Technician Ryan Morrison said: “I’ve been dealing with a few cases this morning and yesterday afternoon where the computer just fails to boot. I haven’t had time to confirm this yet, but it looks to be caused by AVG preventing a Windows Update from applying and causing the boot loader to get stuck on Starting Windows.”

After the system has sat on the “Starting Windows” screen for a while the PC will then automatically go into the Windows Recovery mode.

In some instances, re-installing AVG after safely removing it causes the problem to reoccur. We await AVG’s response to our report and we will update this page as soon as we have more information.

 

Update as of 24/06: We received an update from our AVG Account Manager which says:

We have a problem the past week however we have been advised to ask all partners to uninstall Trusteer Rapport from the customers computer using safe mode as we think this may be causing the problem. If you are unable to uninstall Trusteer Rapport, you can temporarily uninstall AVG following the instructions in Uninstall AVG.

 

June 19, 2015
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Windows Server 2003 end of support

On 14th July 2015 Microsoft will cease supporting Server 2003. This means that, going forward, there will be no more updates or patches for the Server Operating System, which will lead to a less stable and less secure server infrastructure for any businesses that choose to continue to use the system after this date.

Any organisation that is still currently using Microsoft Server 2003 needs to put in place a plan of action to migrate to a new server Operating System, or find an alternative IT infrastructure solution.

Edinburgh IT Support consultants, Consider IT, suggest getting in touch and we’ll provide options for moving forward to a secure and reliable solution.

 

June 9, 2015
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HMRC jumps ship to Google Apps, ditches Microsoft

HMRC has turned its back on Microsoft after announcing the news that they plan to switch to Google’s cloud apps services.

First reported by The Register, 70,000 HMRC employees are dumping Microsoft’s productivity solutions in favour of the Google Apps service proudly boasted by the internet giant.

This means HMRC will be the first of the major UK governmental departments to make the switch away from Microsoft.

HMRCInterestingly, back in May 2013, MPs accused the internet giant of deliberately subverting its motto, “don’t be evil”, in order to pay less tax. It’s almost ironic that of all the government bodies to make the move to Google Apps it’s HMRC that’s doing so.

Infuriated members of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) lashed out at the company as one of its most senior executives insisted it was not “selling” advertising in the UK – but in low-tax Ireland instead.

 

The arrangement allowed Google to pay just £6m in UK corporation tax in 2011 despite generating more than £3bn in advertising revenues in this country.

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“You are a company that says you do no evil,” said Margaret Hodge, the committee’s chairman. “I think that you do do evil. You use smoke and mirrors to avoid paying tax.”

 

But, press on they will. HMRC have obviously settled their differences with Google and are willing to switch to the Google Apps productivity suite.

The Cabinet Office has 2,500 users on Gmail at the moment. The government said in March the Google Apps suit best met the user needs for the Cabinet Office and DCMS.

David Fitton, head of public sector sales for Google UK wrote on Linkedin:

“The acceptance by HMRC that they can store OFFICIAL information offshore in Google data-centres represents a major change and endorsement of Google’s approach to managing sensitive information.”

Edinburgh IT Support company, Consider IT, supports both the Google Apps cloud-service and Microsoft’s Office365.

June 5, 2015
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SourceForge has begun hijacking popular software from their download lists

SourceForge is a popular website that offers source-code repository, downloads mirrors, bug tracker and other features. It acts as a centralised location for software developers to control and manage free and open-source software development. What you might know it from is its usefulness in providing downloads of popular software, rather than having to go to the developer’s website to get it.

Since yesterday at least, SourceForge has now since started to distribute adware/malware in certain projects hosted on their site.

NMAP, an open-source network tool used extensively by IT Professionals has been hijacked by SourceForge and the developers have hit back on security notice boards:

Hi Folks! You may have already read the recent news about SourceForge.net hijacking the GIMP project account to distribute adware/malware. Previously GIMP used this Sourceforge account to distribute their Windows installer, but they quit after SourceForge started tricking users with fake download buttons which lead to malware rather than GIMP. Then SourceForge took over GIMP’s account and began distributing a trojan installer which tries to trick users into installing various malware and adware before actually installing GIMP. …

Anyway, the bad news is that SourceForge has also hijacked the Nmap account from me.

Despite promises to avoid deceptive advertisements that trick site visitors into downloading unwanted software and malware onto their computers, these malicious ads are appearing on projects that have been taken over by SourceForge’s anonymous editorial staff.

FileZilla was an early participant in DevShare, SourceForge’s revenue sharing plan for open-source developers. It was supposed to be opt-in only. By allowing SourceForge to wrap downloads in a Web installer that offered up to three different software bundles, open-source projects could generate some cash to support development.

But GIMP never enrolled in DevShare—SourceForge foisted the adware on the project’s Windows installer after taking over the project’s page. On Sunday, the GIMP team issued an official statement through Michael Schumacher, a maintainer of the GIMP website. It said that the GIMP team was never informed of what SourceForge was going to do.

“This was done without our knowledge and permission, and we would never have permitted it,” Schumacher wrote. Furthermore, he noted, the move broke a promise SourceForge made in November 2013: “We want to reassure you that we will never bundle offers with any project without the developers consent.”

SourceForge’s search engine ranking for these projects often makes the site the first link provided to people seeking downloads for code on Google and Bing search results.

Some of the software hosted on SourceForge are as follows:  openoffice, audacity, fedora, firefox, gimp, gnu privacy guard, joomla, libre office, multiwii, neverball, nmap, sqlite, simulationcraft, snort, texworks, transmission, vlc media player, wordpress, recaptcha, apache, mame, mysql, thunderbird.

We suggest avoiding SourceForge for the foreseeable!

 

June 4, 2015
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Paypal: “Accept our auto calls and auto texts or close your account”

PayPal and eBay have fallen out and are splitting up with each other on 1st July 2015. PayPal have published a new set of Privacy Policies that will come into force on the same day.

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE AMENDED USER AGREEMENT, PRIVACY POLICY OR ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY, YOU MAY CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT BEFORE JULY 1, 2015 AND YOU WILL NOT BE BOUND BY THE AMENDED TERMS.

PayPal is nice enough to give its customers only two options when it comes to the new terms: begrudgingly accept them or close your account entirely.

There’s a temporary page showing all the new Privacy Policy changes in full with the highlighted points at the top. The top paragraph states several scenarios where PayPal may choose to automatically call or text you:

  1. notify you regarding your account
  2. troubleshoot problems with your account
  3. resolve a dispute
  4. collect a debt
  5. poll your opinions through surveys or questionnaires
  6. contact you with offers and promotions
  7. as otherwise necessary to service your account or enforce this User Agreement, our policies, applicable law, or any other agreement we may have with you.

Some of these items are standard and fair, but the ones highlighted in red might start putting some of PayPal’s customers off the idea of using their service completely.

What are your thoughts on this? Pop a comment below!

June 3, 2015
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