sysdate.exe:How to remove the trojan

The sysdate.exe file is a trojan and it binds itself with the help of windows registry with the explorer.exe process.So that whenever you start the explorer.exe it starts alongwith it. It has various names like 604.exe,408.exe etc. The sysdate.exe process is stored in the recycle bin or the recycler folder which is hidden.

To heal your computer from the trojan follow these steps:-

1. The first thing you need to do is empty your temp folder where this trojan maybe stored with different names like 604.exe etc. For this open the run prompt and type %temp% and delete all the executable files in that.


2. Now you have to delete the actual sysdate.exe file and for that you will have to manually delete it from the RECYCLER folder but the folder is a hidden and system folder so you can not see it in the c drive. So just execute the attrib command with parameters -r -h -s to remove the the attributes(r(Read-only) ,-h(Hidden) ,-s(System)).
   To do the aforementioned task, open the command prompt and type the following command.
   

   attrib -r -h -s C:/RECYCLER
   

   
   Also you have to repeat this step with the actual folder containing the sysdate.exe under the recycler folder. Execute the following command

   attrib -r -h -s C:/RECYCLER /S-1-5-21-832453443-4443154761-431384085-6428
   

   
   Here the folder name may vary because the trojan might be stored with a different folder name.
   


3. Now actually to delete the file sysdate.exe, you would have to first kill the explorer.exe process from the task manager. Press ctrl+alt+del , Now from the processes tab select explorer.exe process and press delete key or click on end process. Now in the task-manager go to the file menu and select new task and then click on the browse button and navigate to the folder under the Recycler folder containing the file sysdate.exe and Shift+Delete it. Now delete the Recycler folder as well, Don't worry the recycler folder will come back so there's no risk in deleting it.
   
   
   
   
   

















4. Now in the new task menu of task manager, type regedit and then navigate to the following key
   HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
   Now from the right window pane delete the Taskman key. Press F5 to check whether it reappears or not. If it does not then you would have successfully removed the trojan.
   
   
   






5. Now navigate to the following registry key.
   HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
   and modify the shell key by removing anything that follows the explorer.exe.
   
   
   
   













6. Now in the new task menu of task manager type explorer which will restart the explorer process and your system would be free from the trojan.

Alternate Solution:-

The attrib command can be skipped if you have a dual boot os then just mount the windows partition and delete the files under the recycler folder with ease.

Note: It is always recommended before opening the external drive just open it under the command prompt and delete the autorun.inf file from it.

Read More

Get 100fps in Counter Strike 1.6

This tutorial provides you with tips on how to get a consistent 100fps or round about that.

Prerequisites:

• a graphics card external but it maybe the case that an on-board card would suffice.I use nvidia geforce 5200fx 8x agp(accelerated graphics port) slot card. It is pretty cheap and old technology as now pc's come with the pci express slot.
  
• a dsl connection >256 kbits/sec: I am pretty sure people would have that much by now.

Settings :

1. Graphics card Setting:

• I am displaying with examples of nvidia display driver you should have similar options in ati cards or any other gfx card.
• Ok so first step is to open nvidia control panel from nvidia icon in taskbar by right clicking on it and choosing nvidia control panel. You can do the same by going to control panel and opening it from there.
• Now Choose "3d settings" option from the nvidia control panel. After that choose "adjust image settings with preview" don't worry if you don't find that option the important point is you have to edit 3d settings.
• Then choose "use advanced 3d settings " and click on take me there as shown in figure.
  

• Choose Global Settings tab and then choose texture filtering option and select high performance from drop down list as shown in the figure below. This option is most important as it will cause sharp rise in your fps.
  

• Now choose Vertical sync option and select force off ,Also turn the anisotropic filtering to application controlled (as it is not allowed to be turned off in tournaments) and anti aliasing to off. One more thing if your graphics card is dual display card then choose hardware acceleration to single display performance mode. Apply these settings and move to game configuration part.

2. Configuring Counter Strike/CS1.6 :

1. Configuring start up options and launch parameters:

• Right click on the shortcut to your game and select properties then in the target field append the parameters -noipx -sv_lan 0 +heapsize 250000 +sys_ticrate 1000. For example "C:\Counter-Strike 1.6 + Half-Life\hl.exe" -game cstrike -noipx -sv_lan 0 +heapsize 250000 +sys_ticrate 1000" and in case of steam append it after the -applaunch 10 parameter.
• Now launch the game and open the console by pressing '`' character and type fps_max 101 and after that r_decals 300 , rate 25000 , cl_updaterate 101 ,cl_cmdrate 101 . because they must match your fps rate for better registry.
• Now go to video options and select open gl mode with resolution of your choice, i personally use 800*600 resolution.
  

That's it you should get 100 fps (hovering around 99-100). Do post your comments in case you find this post helpful or encounter any problem .

--Update
After CS 1.6 update some users might experience green screen issue and game would not be playable so put the following parameters in launch options  and you will get more than 100 fps

-gl -noforcemparms -noforcemaccel -noforcemspd -nofbo -nomsaa

---Update 2

For disabling vertical sync in-game type the following command.
gl_vsync 0

If you do not use the above command or disable vertical sync in game you might not get 100 fps.

---Update 3
You can get more than 100 fps in cs now. Just type fps_max , for ex fps_max 500 and then type fps_override 1

You can also enable low video quality option to get 100 or more fps on other machines easily.

Enjoy :-)

Read More

Dual core processors: The main logic

The dual core and quad core processors have become very popular nowadays but the main reason behind their success is the power management.

There are two basic concepts that one must know, they are :-

Overclocking the processor :-

Let's say that ideally a normal single core processor takes x units of power to give x units of performance. But users generally tend to increase the performance by overclocking the processor ie essentially increasing the clock frequency of the processor. If a user follows the process of overclocking the processor, then the performance increase is about 12-13 percent but the power increase required for that would be about 70 percent.

Under-clocking the processor :-

Now the interesting concept is what if we under-clock the processor that is decrease the clock frequency of the processor?

In this case we could get about 80 percent of the performance at roughly half the power. For example we would get .8x units of performance at .5x units of power.

Now this is the concept that is utilized by the dual core processors and instead of using a single processor we combine the two processors and operate each one of them at half of it's power and so for the same power taken by the normal single core processor we get about 70 percent increase in performance. The aforementioned reason is the core reason behind the success of dual core processors.

Another major factor in dual core processors is as they operate at lower clock rates it helps in reducing the speed mismatch between the processor and the memory and this is a relevant factor because with processor clock rates increasing at very faster speeds the corresponding increase in clock rates of cache memory is not their, therefore a processor's clock cycles are not utilized properly and are wasted in memory read/write cycles.

Hence the concept of under-clocking helps also in reducing the speed mismatch b/w the memory and the processor.

Read More

Configure Hlds Server for Counter Strike 1.6

There are a few steps that you have to follow before you can create a dedicated server (Hlds) for counter strike 1.6

The steps are :-

1. Configuring the router/modem: Follow these steps:-

• Open any web browser and in the address bar type 192.168.1.1/main.html or 192.168.1.1/index.html or 192.168.1.1 , whichever provides you with advanced configuration menu.
  
• After this a pop-up will ask you about the user name and password. The default user name and password pair's are admin, admin or admin, password, enter other values if you have modified the default settings.
  
• Then choose advanced setup-> Nat -> Virtual servers (don't worry if you cannot find the exact sequence, what really matters is that you must be able to find the virtual servers option)
  
• Now, choose add a virtual server and repeat the following steps for opening the ports shown in the table.
  
  a) Type the service name as shown in the table
  b) Type start port as start port shown in the table
  c) Type end port as port shown in the table
  d) Choose the protocol as shown in the table
  e) Type 192.168.1.5 as server ip
  f) Press add server button.

Server name	Start port	End Port	Protocol
Half life	6003	6003	TCP and UDP
Half life	7001	7001	TCP and UDP
Half life	27005	27005	UDP
Half life	27010	27015	UDP
Half life Server	27015	27015	UDP
Half life Server	27016	27016	UDP

After these steps the virtual server configuration of the modem should look like the following figure.

• This finishes the modem's setup. Just note the DNS (Domain Name server) ip in the modem's wan info page, it will be used later.
  

2. Configuring the Local area Connection :-

• Open the control panel and switch to classic view.
• Then open network connections.
  
• Right click on the Local area Connection and choose properties.
• Then scroll down and select The Internet protocol( Tcp/Ip) option and click on properties button (refer to the following figure).
  

• Choose the "use following ip address" radio button and enter the following:-
  a) Ip address: 192.168.1.5
  b) Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
  c) Default gateway: 192.168.1.1
  d) Preffered DNS server: Enter the address that you noted in at the end of step 1

3) Adding the exception to windows firewall: The last step is to add the exception in the windows firewall for the hlds server.

That's it you are done . Do post comments in case you encounter any problem

Read More

Create custom Sprays/Images for counter strike

In this tutorial i will be explaining about following two things

1) Creating your own spray paint image.
2) Converting images to counter strike sprays.

1) Creating your own spray paint image : for this follow these steps

• open a simple paint program, i am using microsoft paint for this example.
• paint your own image and then there are following 2 options available to you.

1. Transparent Background: If you want your images to have a transparent background then in microsoft paint or any other paint program set its background to blue.
2. Normal background: This is rarely the case that you would want to have because it displays a big background to your image that looks cheap.

• Now that you have created your image save it as .bmp extension for clarity and then proceed to second step.

2) Converting images to counter strike sprays : for this follow these steps

• Download decal converter from here and extract the rar archive file.
• Open the folder decal converter and then open decal converter.
• Now you will have to set the path in decal converter where you have installed your counter strike. For this go to the options menu and select "half life Games folders" option then choose browse and find your cs installation, check the "default game for decals " option and then press OK.
• Now go to the file menu and select "open picture option" then choose the image for which you want to make the spray.
• The decal converter will automatically re size the image. You have the option of resizing image by increasing the height or the width of the image but since the maximum number of pixels allowed is limited you would have to decrease the width or height correspondingly.
• Now go to the "decal" menu and choose "makedecal" option, Then the decal file will be created in the game directory as "pldecal.wad".
• Now delete the old "tempdecal.wad" and "custom.hpk" files and rename the pldecal.wad to tempdecal.wad and make it read only.
• Now you are done, go in game and start spraying :)

Note: if your spray is not working go to the game directory and delete the custom.hpk file again (that sick file will keep on reappearing :( )

Read More

Verify blogger or blogspot site on msn

If you want to verify your blogger site on msn follow these simple steps:-

• Go to the msn site


• Then do not directly submit your site url, first visit the link at bottom that says webmasters (as shown in figure below). I could have provided you this link directly but i did not because most of the users end up entering their site at the first link and that gives them no control over the site information.

• Then the page will have a button that says "sign in to use the tools" press this button and then login with your userid and password. you will be redirected to webmasters tool and then there will be a button that says "add a site", click on it.


• Then fill up the form as follows:-
  

1. Enter the web site address. For example if you have your site address as http://abc.blogspot.com then enter only abc.blogspot.com. Note: this is the place where people generally mess up the url and in previous example may end up entering www.abc.blogspot.com. it is to be noted that your blog address does not have a www prefix so do not enter the www prefix.


2. Now submit a sitemap link as yoursite.blogspot.com/atom.xml . Here replace yoursite.blogspot.com with your blog address. After this enter the email address that you want to use as contact information and then press submit.
   

• After the last step you would be redirected to authentication part. Now scroll down to see meta tag verification, copy the meta tag and then proceed to the next step.


• Adding meta tag in your blogger site : Login to your blogger account and then Go to the Layout option after that click on the Edit Html tab and then in the edit template section paste the meta below the code fragment as shown below. Make sure that you append the closing tag if it is missing. for example if tag is like this <meta name="xyz" content="ahshshhsh" > then change it to <meta name="xyz" content="ahshshhsh" />





<head>
<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>

• Click the save template button and then login back to the webmasters tool in msn and click on the site after which it will be authenticated.
  

Read More

Contig defragment single files/folders

Here i discuss about the tool that is of paramount importance in a situation where you do not have time to defragment the entire drive and just want to defragment single file /folder in windows xp.

The tool i am discussing about is Contig it was developed by sysinternals and can be downloaded here. It is a tool that is operated through the command line.

The first thing you should do is download the tool it's only 100kb in size.


How To Use it ?

1. After downloading and extracting it, Open the command prompt on the folder containing the tool(use command prompt here tool) or for example If the tool is extracted in C:\abc then open command prompt and type cd "C:\abc" to make it the current directory. You can also set the path variable once and for all, see the tutorial on how to set the path variable [link] and after that the command can be invoked from any folder.


2.The tool has the following command line structure and options:

Command Structure : Contig [-options] filename.

Options:

1) v : for providing verbose output of the ongoing operation.

2) a : for analysis that is providing information of how fragmented a file or files have become.

3) q: The quiet mode switch , which over-rides the -v switch, makes Contig run in "quiet" mode, where the only thing it prints during a defrag run is summary information and no information regarding the ongoing operation is displayed.

4) s: Use the -s switch to perform a recursive processing of subdirectories when you specify a filename with wildcards.

For more options just type contig it will display the command help

Usage Examples:

1)If you want to defragment the entire directory and all the files under it then use the following command

contig -v -s "directory path\*.*"

For example: in my case directory is "C:\wamp" and i am using quiet mode ie -q option, So the command will be

contig -q -s "C:\wamp\*.*"

Output Image:












2)If you want to just defrag one file then simply use contig c:\dir_path\file_name .

Do leave your comment if post was helpfull.

Read More