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Monday, February 10, 2003
Downloads

Freeware that remove trojans without formatting
Raman Mohan

HERE are two freeware programs that help maintain your privacy. The first -12Ghosts Wash removes all traces of your Internet surfing and Windows sessions. The other helps computers affected by BackDoor type Trojans remove the compromising files from the system and restore normalcy so that no one can dupe you while you are on the Net. Normally, trojan removal involves HDD formatting, but this set of files will help you normalise your machine without resorting to formatting.

12Ghosts Wash

This is a program that maintains privacy by not allowing others to see which Websites you have visited or what you have done in Windows. All options can be cleared with just one click, or even automatically at startup, shutdown, or at a certain time of day. It removes tracks deliberately, even where other programs fail, for example, cleaning related traces in the registry. And with the optional shredder, not even finest magnetic tracks are left of any compromising or confidential information. It removes the Internet history, cookies, and temporary cached files in the Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. It also clears the address list drop-down, auto-complete info, and the last Save-As folders of IE. The Windows’ temporary folder is cleared and also the recycle bin, the run history, recent documents, and find files history. It even deletes locked files (files that are in use, e.g. those ominous "index.dat" files). The program tries to close these applications. If that does not work 12-Wash queues deletion for the next Windows restart. You may extend the washing with any user-defined item. Personal files, folders (with wildcards and subfolders, for example all *.chk and *.tmp files), and of course, individual registry keys or values are cleared automatically. You can easily and quickly search for "garbage" files, temporary files that have not been cleaned up by programs. A list of files to delete is displayed where you may choose which files to delete (or keep). The freeware version is the lite version in which some tasks (marked with red buttons) may not function. Nevertheless, even the lite version is a very useful tool. Download from: www.12ghosts.com/download/12clean.exe

Rx-Pack for Windows ’95/’98

The Rx Trojan Assistance Pack contains four files used to help correct a system that has been compromised by a Back Door type trojan. Trojans allow an unscrupulous person on the Internet to access the computer. Once they have access, they can do anything on a computer that you can and they can do many things that you would not want done. When the current anti-virus software packages spot the trojan, they delete or quarantine it. This creates a system paralysis that will not allow any of the programs with an "EXE" extension to work. The first of the pack of four - EXEfix08 will restore the standard "EXE" information into a trojan altered Windows Registry. The second - StartUp Log - will show all programs that start in the many usual places when you start Windows that is a useful tool that can help spot trojans. The third file - Edit-WI - lists the usual infected lines in the win.ini file to a generated text file and opens win.ini in Notepad for editing. The generated text provides helpful editing assistance. The fourth - Edit-SI - lists the usual infected line in the system.ini file to a generated text and opens system.ini in Notepad for editing. The generated text provides helpful editing assistance. Download available from www.home.earthlink.net/~rmbox/Reticulated/Rx-pack.zip.