Messages

1

Tweaking.com Support & Help / I have found the culprit

« on: December 30, 2013, 03:51:23 pm »

My computer is still not running right.  I think after my most recent infections, it started pulling up one out of every four to six webpages as "Problem loading page" in FireFox.  Refreshing these pages later pulls them up promptly.  Pulling up the same page on another computer in my house here comes up quickly.  I don't think this has anything to do with Windows Repair; as I dropped back to a version of the registry before I applied the fixes, and it still did it.

In the course of doing this, I reapplied all off the fixes I listed above as safe, and they worked fine again with VirtualBox.  I tried four more, to try to resolve the problem, and VirtualBox broke.  These were only four more, so I broke it down to see which one was at fault.  It turned out to be "Repair Internet Explorer" which breaks VirtualBox on my machine.  This should save you a little time.

I'm running Win7 Home Premium 32-bit on an Intel Core i3.

2

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Bug: Windows Repair breaks Oracle Virtual Box

« on: December 09, 2013, 05:12:54 pm »

The error comes up right when you start it, so you don't have to know how to use it.  If the main application comes up instead of a pop-up, it is fine.  There is a free download for it also; which is the one I was using.  (I've found it to be much better than VMWare, for any interested.)

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Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Bug: Windows Repair breaks Oracle Virtual Box

« on: December 08, 2013, 05:39:08 pm »

Well, now that you say what it is, it does sound doubtful.  Since I restored the registry, I did the tweaks I have listed.  I have no problems with my system, except that I uninstalled IE8 ages ago, and no subsequent IE will reinstall.  Punishment for disloyalty to M$, no doubt.  I don't think it's related to Win Repair.  The other issue I had, is it was saying "unknown network" as well as "network access" with a home symbol in the system tray.  I could use the 'Net fine, but I couldn't bring up the network and sharing center.  A few updates later, and it asked me if I wanted to give explorer.exe access to the LAN.  I told it yes, and the center opens up normally, and I just have the one expected connection.  I don't know if that one is related to Win Repair or not.

I'm sure that none of the repairs in the default configuration breaks VirtualBox.  Suggestion: 1) install VirtualBox, 2) check that it runs, if not, you may need a virgin computer, i.e. pre Win Repair.  3) run WinRepair with the defaults, 4) see if VirtualBox runs.

4

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Bug: Windows Repair breaks Oracle Virtual Box

« on: November 23, 2013, 07:38:57 am »

Currently, VirtualBox works, and I find ProxyEnable missing in HKLM, but present in the other two.  I don't find the other values in any.  I had no idea what an SID was, but sleuthed it out.

5

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Bug: Windows Repair breaks Oracle Virtual Box

« on: November 21, 2013, 07:01:44 am »

Let me first say that Windows Repair is fantastic.  I recently cleaned up a ZeroAccess variant on my machine, and it was the only thing that got the Firewall, Defender, and Update going.  Truly Awesome Work!!!  I'll soon be using it on another machine at our home as well, if needed.

I found that after I had applied the repairs in WR, VirtualBox would not start, saying "Failed to create the VirtualBox COM object".  Fortunately, I backed up my registry and did a system restore point, as prompted by the program.  Looking at the technical support on that issue accomplished nothing.  Uninstalling VB and reinstalling would not make the problem go away.  I restored the registry, and it went away.

I then proceeded to apply the fixes a few at a time, instead of applying the defaults.  I had applied a lot of them, and got most of the non-working services working again, working from the top down; except skipping ones that likely wouldn't be involved.  I got to the item "Repair Proxy Settings"; and remembering that VB installed network adapters to allow the virtual machine to communicate with the outside world, I skipped it, in favor of "Restore Important Windows Services".  This finally had Windows Firewall, Defender, and Update working; AND VB working at the same time.  Whew!  That had been an involved cleanup.

Thus, I think "Repair Proxy Settings" makes VB irreparably broken.  It might be another default setting; but I think it's probably that one.  Ones it certainly is not, are the ones I used the second time around:

Windows Firewall
Windows Update
Remove Policies Set By Infections
Register System Files
WMI
Winsock & DNS Cache
Restore Important Windows Services

Other ones that don't cause the problem are the ones that are not enabled by default - or at least I'm pretty sure they don't.

I'd fool around with it more and see what the problem is, but after that lengthy malware cleanup, I'm spent.  I suspect you'll be able to reproduce the problem; but if not, post here and I can try to narrow it down eventually.  I'm just trying to pay it forward, so we can have the tool that M$ should have made in the beginning, a repair function for Win7, even better.  Keep up the good work :P