Messages

126

General Computer Support / Re: Desktop pc suddenly slow

« on: February 22, 2016, 03:14:01 pm »

I'll let you see the Task Manager of yesterday when everything was superfine and the one of right now. See attachments.

The striking thing is that yesterday the pc was asking much more of CPU memory. This was before I closed the 20 tabs in Firefox, I think.

127

General Computer Support / Re: Desktop pc suddenly slow

« on: February 22, 2016, 11:53:52 am »

The pc is slow again, in an increasingly worse way.

How much should the percentage of processor use in Task Manager be, ideally spoken?

I have open: Outlook e-mail program, Explorer, Firefox, Word, Energy Management, Task Manager, HW Monitor.

This is what I noticed: yesterday when everything was fine the processor use varied between 0 and 5 percent. When the pc now gets non-responsive, the processor use drops to 0% (see attachment). That may be obvious to you, but I don't know, maybe that helps. Is 0 to 5 percent not very little when it functions normally?

128

General Computer Support / Re: EMET and corruptions in Microsoft Office

« on: February 22, 2016, 09:44:54 am »

Thank you, jraju, for such an elaborate explanation. Really! I can return here whenever I need to.

The good news is that the Standard Font in Styles simply returned today. Apparently it needed a restart to pick up on the settings I restored in Outlook.

Phewww.

The one thing I still would like some more reactions to is whether I should get rid of EMET. This was so highly recommended everywhere a few years back for loopholes in the Microsoft software. Do you guys have it installed?

129

General Computer Support / Re: EMET and corruptions in Microsoft Office

« on: February 21, 2016, 07:39:12 am »

Will I lose my settings with a Repair?

And can I delete EMET?

130

General Computer Support / Re: Desktop pc suddenly slow

« on: February 21, 2016, 07:21:21 am »

You could change it to Ask to activate to see if you still get the intermittent slow as it could be one or more of the many windows you have open that is making the demands.

Oh, now I understand! That's a good one anyway, I changed it. Didn't know that open tabs which haven't been opened to use on a new day, if you understand what I mean, are making any demands on the system.

The AV updating seems to me an unlikely cause as the slowness lasted so long while I was trying out things to solve it.

The number of open tabs I can understand. Still, it doesn't explain why on one particular day there was a huge slowness on every mouse click in every program and after a reboot everything was fine..... Really odd.

131

General Computer Support / EMET and corruptions in Microsoft Office

« on: February 21, 2016, 06:30:00 am »

Since a long time I have EMET 5.2 installed upon the recommendation of an IT-person, but it interferes sometimes with Word. The other day upon opening a file it gave this popup (see attachment) and shut Word down. Word thankfully always repairs itself and the files I'm working on but this time I got 3 shutdowns in a row on opening this file (which I use daily and have no problems with on other days) and Word at one point lost all my settings. On re-opening again the settings were back and everything seemed alright.

But then in my Outlook e-mail program I lost the standard font Arial 10. I had to change it back via Extra > Options. So that's alright again but I see that I lost the Standard Font in the Start Menu under Styles in Word. For those who have Word 2007: the first Standard Font is called Standard. The second one No Spacing (might be a different word, I'm translating). I can see the Standard Font in Outlook though! (These settings are the same as the programs are connected in the Microsoft Office program, for those who don't know.) In Word the first is the No Spacing.

I'll try a reboot and see if Word will now get the Standard Font back. No, too bad.

Is there such a thing as a repair program for Office or Word?

And can I uninstall this EMET? It seems to do more harm than good. 

132

General Computer Support / Re: Desktop pc suddenly slow

« on: February 21, 2016, 06:04:10 am »

It has been found that an AV program updating in the background can slow a machine down, but I think the only way to determine if EMET is conflicting with other software on your system would be to uninstall it.

I think you are confusing EMET and ESET. ESET is an online scanner which can be used whenever necessary and updates at that moment. It is not an installed program and doesn't run in the background.
EMET is a Microsoft tool to help against vulnerabilities in the Windows software.  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2458544

I'm still unsure whether EMET is really necessary. An IT person told me to use it. It only conflicts with Word sometimes. I think I'll make a new post just to ask about EMET.

Flash Player has recently been found to cause slow in Firefox and changing it to ask to activate has resolved.

Do I understand correctly that I have to change the Shockwave plugin into "ask to be activated"? I have it on "always activated". Do you recommend Flashplayer over Shockwave Player?

I ran through the Startup Menu a while ago with someone and I only have a few, like AV and Intel.

Today I have no problems with slowness again. Maybe it was just another temporary Windows Little Devil. We KNOW they exist.   

Thank you, Boggin! Much appreciated once again.

133

General Computer Support / Re: Desktop pc suddenly slow

« on: February 20, 2016, 10:28:59 am »

ESET is a free online scanner and is supposed to be one of the best. http://www.eset.com/int/home/products/online-scanner/

BullGuard is my (paid) antivirus & firewall program. Am very satisfied with it.

That was rather cool to see the memory usage of my programs, Boggin!    I made a screenshot so I can compare things. Yes, I agree, it feels like something is taking up too much space sometimes. I thought about that yesterday when I looked at 40 pages on an online webshop site, but I also had the issue in a major way right at startup last week.

Because my problem happens so randomly I don't think this is a cause but I wondered about this. Would you mind explaining this to me? When I load a lot of pages or windows it takes up a lot of cache, right? And that could also slow things down, couldn't it? So if I want to delete the cache, how do I go about that? I assumed WiseDiskCleaner does that as it mentions Mozilla Firefox Cache (see attachment). So I did that when I had major problems yesterday, but it didn't help. I ran the optimalisation feature in BullGuard and it gave a lot of Mbs in the Firefox cache to be removed which I did but that didn't help either. So what's with the cache? Is it a good idea to empty it after several hours at the pc? The Task Manager says the cache now takes up half of the memory (about 4 out of 8 RAM). I hope I'm not saying really wrong things now. I'm out of my league here.

Oh, light bulb moment! Yesterday before closing down I closed quite a few windows in Firefox. I now have about 70 open and I closed about 20. Could that just have been it because today everything is peachy!

Another thing: it struck me that EMET (not to be confused with ESET) takes up ranking No. 7 in memory usage. Sometimes I get this message from EMET (see attachment) when I'm working in Word and it closes Word down. Today I had it again when I wanted to open a file which I use daily. On other days I have no problems opening it. After opening Word anew I got the same shutdown on opening that file two times and the third time I opened it via the regular opening button (not via 'recently opened documents') and everything was fine again. This seems to me to be odd too. Do I really need EMET? (I have version 5.2.) I thought it was needed for the Internet Explorer browser but I don't use IE. I was told to install EMET anyway but maybe it is outdated and only interferes? Cannot find any answers online about that.

Hope you're still with me.

134

General Computer Support / Re: Desktop pc suddenly slow

« on: February 20, 2016, 04:38:26 am »

Hi Boggin,

I downloaded the program (don't like entering the BIOS on reboot) and temperatures of motherboard, processors and SSD drive are perfect. Am experiencing no problems with slowness at all today. So I should check the temperatures when it does get slow? And by cleaning out the case you mean literally dusting off the inside of the desktop thing (cannot find a word, haha)? I heard about that. Would be a first for me to open the thing up....

135

General Computer Support / (Solved) Desktop pc suddenly slow

« on: February 19, 2016, 02:38:17 pm »

Hi guys,

Everything was going well for a while (SO wonderful  ) but since a few days my desktop pc (HP, W7) has become superslow. The weird thing is that it's not all the time, sometimes I have no problems, sometimes after a while, sometimes the whole time. Sometimes a reboot helps but now it seems to be getting worse. It doesn't matter what I click on, it takes like half a minute to a full minute for the pc to get the job done. I cannot play any videos anymore, they're full of hiccups. So it seems a buffering problem?? I regularly clean the pc with WiseDiskCleaner (= similar to CCleaner) and with BullGuard's optimalisation feature. I did several scans (MBAM, Eset, BullGuard) but nothing there.

Anybody any ideas?

Lady

136

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: January 05, 2016, 02:52:08 am »

A VERY Happy New Year to you all!

I hope that this year will make your biggest dreams come true.

 

137

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 23, 2015, 04:11:58 am »

Same here.   

138

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 22, 2015, 05:30:00 am »

About the settings in uBlock Origin: the site linked to the documentary I saw on trackers recommends checking (under Privacy) Fanboy’s Enhanced Tracking List. Does anybody have any experience with that one in terms of web site breakage?

139

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 21, 2015, 11:23:36 am »

Hi Jethro,

COOL! It worked with the path in the explorer window. See image. The Low folder is empty. What are these other 3? Are those cookies? Should I delete them?? When I click on them, Notepad opens and a lot of numbers and letters appear. Like this, the first one:

__cfduid
d77a3acd14e57e53bb5749fedcd7d483f1450003654
avaaz.org/
9728
624404224
30561381
2915475543
30487955
*
It might be the cookie that remembers my mail address when I sign petitions for the Avaaz organization. (If you're concerned about the world's crises and the environment etc. you should check them out, they're awesome!) If that is true, they're harmless. (The other two are another one from Avaaz and one from my cell phone company.)

I must tell you that the tracking cookie that BullGuard found was called Cookie .2o7. As far as I could find out, it's linked to gathering info for Adobe and iTunes. I checked the cookies list in CCleaner, like Boggin explained, and I don't see the cookie with which you're battling,  , the adnxs.com. I don't know why I don't have it. :S

Isn't it weird that the cookies list in CCleaner is so much longer than the Windows Cookies folder? Are all those "good" cookies  , useful or functional ones? CCleaner says "Select the cookies you want to keep". But I don't recognize all of them. Hmmm. My logical mind says: BullGuard or MBAM would have found the bad cookies among them. Am I right?

140

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 20, 2015, 05:59:39 am »

Oh, and I just ran a BullGuard full scan and it came up with a malicious tracking cookie......  How in the world is that possible with this wall I just built around my pc? 

141

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 20, 2015, 05:57:40 am »

I use CCleaner and I see the list you're talking about. But I meant in Explorer, like Jethro mentions in #28. I found out how to make the folder visible (http://www.thewindowsclub.com/cookies-folder-location-windows) but it doesn't seem to work. Maybe after a reboot? Well, it's not that important. Just curious why he can see it and I cannot. 

142

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 20, 2015, 05:06:12 am »

How can I get to see the Cookies folder in Explorer?

143

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 19, 2015, 03:15:39 am »

Boggin, at the risk of making a superfluous remark, it might be important. Are you aware of the difference between uBlock and uBlock Origin? The thing is, it seems that uBlock is not being updated anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock

144

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 17, 2015, 03:03:45 pm »

Thank you, Julian!

I removed the very first line. That looked a bit odd for people who don't know about the move when they start out with this new thread.

BTW, don't worry, your ego can NOT inflate if you never heard of uBlock and Ghostery. Lol

145

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 17, 2015, 10:35:56 am »

Jraju, no problem. Go ahead and use my thread! 

Everybody: I mentioned the importance of this subject in my first post (#67) and it shows this is worth a separate thread.

Is there a way to move all the posts since #67 to a new thread? If so, I'd be happy to start a new one. Just let me know how.

Julian, thanks for making things simpler! Hahaha.

146

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 13, 2015, 05:33:43 am »

I feel MUCH more protected right now. Just wish I had known about this before. 

But hey, I'm ahead of the game! Yayyy!!!

You made me smile there, Samson. For that and for solving this issue for me, I'll give you a karma point. 

147

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 13, 2015, 02:20:29 am »

Jraju, thank you for the quick guide  link. That was helpful although not an easy read.   I visited the uBlock main page on github.com before but was put off by all the tech stuff there and didn't look any further.

Samson, thank you for the images. The thing was, uBlock's popup in the toolbar showed figures which made me feel they weren't blocking much. Whereas Ghostery is very clear about which trackers etc. are on the page. See images of their popups on the same random website. But now I know that uBlock is doing its work! So that's why I read that uBlock is much more difficult in its UI than Ghostery. I liked Ghostery though for its clarity and simplicity. Is uBlock really much better?

148

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 11, 2015, 04:59:38 am »

As expected, after installing uBlock Origin I have no idea which options to check and which not.
Could any of you post a picture of your general settings and third-party filters?

149

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 10, 2015, 07:45:52 am »

I have a Dutch version of Firefox. So the first two I leave unchecked. But I don't understand the Do not tell one.
Which one is that? See the image. It's never too late to learn a new language. 

150

General Computer Support / Re: Ad And Tracker Blocking

« on: December 10, 2015, 05:00:41 am »

Oh no, Samson, I'm very happy that you responded. I need all the help I can get. I too often feel I'm inventing the wheel here. 

That's very helpful indeed. Just needed you guys to say what works well in this jungle of ad/tracker blockers. (I didn't mention it but I use Firefox as well.) And thanks for that edit, Samson, so I don't have to rack my brain figuring out the settings.

I'll install uBlock Origin. I guess that AVG extension can go and maybe even has to go, for it may interfere. Right?

And I laughed out loud reading your signature, Samson! Hahaha. Can a person be any more scary than Trump??

A laugh a day keeps the doctor away.

Oops, new question arose. In Firefox - Options - Privacy: the first two options about tracking, do I have to check them or leave them unchecked since I now have this trackerblocker installed?

This might be an interesting site for you guys. If you don't already know about it.

https://guardianproject.info/