CWB

disclaimer : this is not a recommendation ... it is a personal experience and the results . i used to use AVG (paid for) but it became "naggy" and started hawking their products , offering things that were of dubious need . i finally settled on ESET "smart security" ... there is no trial (the last i knew) , it does ok and has saved my bacon many times . it will allow you to scan external/flash/thumb drives ... it can be set to automatically scan a drive when it is plugged into the machine (monopoly ; do not pass go ...) . scan individual files ? yes , it allows that . additional information : some AVs can/will "turn off" the windows firewall and windows defender (AVM) , some cannot and will require manual deactivation of them . the running of a single AV and AM is the best way to avoid conflicts and keeping the "fat" on a system pared down .

first ... malwarebytes is not an AV ... it is an antimalware ... it is a very good adjunct to an decent AV . as for "what is a good AV" , forum rules prohibit endorsement of any specific product . here is a list of some programs : https://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?/topic/140779-list-of-well-known-antivirus-products/ you may find that the ram in your old comp is not compatible with your new one or many of the newer style motherboards . if you do scrounge up an *old* working comp that is short on ram , then saving it is a good deal . it has not been determined if your HDD is good , heading south , bad or infected ... there are a couple of tools to determine (to some extent) if the drive is physically and electronically ok . as i understand it , the comp , at this time , is "messed up" ... maybe the best thing is to pull the data off of the drive using a linux based live OS such as "linux mint 13" (google-fu) . as you do not know if the old comp is infected , it is best to not place the old drive in the new machine to pull the data off of it . once the new comp is up to running speed ... then you can transfer stuff from the old comp and scan everything (using the AV and malwarebytes) on the flashdrive that you use for the transfer before you drop it into the new machine . while you are waiting for the new comp to arrive ... check the programs for things like your printer/scanner for compatibility with W8.1 . in some cases , there will not be *new* software written for some devices . as you are not familiar with "classic shell" take this time to read about it at the website or on wikipedia . someone that is familiar with it to guide you through the initial set-up is a good thing ... it makes the learning curve less steep . a couple of items in particular : tell it to bypass the metro/fisher-price screen and go right to the *classic desktop* replace the "start button" with the "aero" themed button deactivate all "corners" , "sidebars" and "charms" "ctrl + escape" is your new friend ... it will usually get one back to the desktop double check your supply of 2-acetoxybenzoic acid

heh ... hard shutdown = "pullin' the plug" . now that can cause problems ... not necessarily but it is a possibility .

without more information , it is hard to say what is happening . as for W8.1 ... yes , it is about as awkward as a bear cub with two left paws ... at least to those of us that require a *real* desktop and keyboard . "classic shell" is the answer (for the most part) , it does a fair job of making W8.1 (_ahem_) *palatable* . i have installed it on many machines . oh yeah ... the first thing to do with that new comp (after installing a *real* anti-virus) is to check for updates and make darn sure that you are indeed running 8.1 and not 8 . go to the "windows store" (in the apps section) and look for "upgrade to W8.1" (or words to that effect) . the upgrade will take an appreciable amount of time ... patience is needed . once the upgrade is done , then check for updates ... after all updates have been installed , tell the windows update to notify you of updates but let you select what to do . continue to install all the rest of the programs you want . you will need to check to see if any of your old programs are compatible with W8.1 .

to the best of my knowledge , the answer would basically be the same . perhaps someone else can shed some light on this subject ... i believe that windows is capable of logging certain activities , but these "monitoring/logging programs" may not be inclusive to your needs . it may be that certain "monitors" are easily thwarted . many of the forensic *tools* require that the machine be re-booted and then the deed(s) can be done . i am fairly certain that any "monitoring program" that is resistant to normal bypassing procedures would have to be implemented at the bios/lower level (so to say) .

as was stated earlier in this thread ... if everything is working ok , then there is no real need to do anything else . if you deem it to be so , you can un-install both programs and then re-install them .

you might try going to their website and asking your question in/of "support" and "community" : http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-mice/razer-naga/

"i was not writing any data, just playing a videogame (and that crashed)" not necessarily so ... windows (et al) is a *busy* OS , it is constantly "doing stuff" in the background ; playing a video game does not obviate or minimize many of these tasks . just about all programs use data writing/shuffling to and from the hard drive . one can look at the hdd "activity indicator" and not see an indication that the hd is being written to/from ... there is a certain amount of activity that has to happen before the indicator is triggered , unless that threshold is met there will be no "blinking" . in some cases , the flash that one can actually see is a series of short close spaced pulses ... a single pulse will not be detected by human vision .

as i decipher it ... i believe the OP wants to know if he can determine that *someone* has been snooping around in his computer via the/a usb/flash drive port ... using a program such as "tails" : https://tails.boum.org/ , or some other bootable/forensic (possibly linux based) *tools* loaded on a usb "stick" . the OP also wants to know if there is a way to tell if this has happened/is happening . the answer , without any additional software is "no" . the "third party software" may allow the monitoring of the usb ports at all times and thus be able to log what port was accessed , the data in and out of that port and at what time it happened .

normally , using the reset button on a "stuck" or "frozen" comp will not induce any serious damage . upon restart , you may be asked to select an option (ie ; resume windows normally) . the reset button is always the last resort .

now there is some good news . i have bookmarked the address and will forward it to a few of my acquaintances . thanks .

"I also seem to have downloaded macafee somehow -- I guess I should remove that." if you did not purposely download mccaffee , it was most likely *included* with another download (such as an adobe product update) . by all means un-install it or elsewise remove it . scan all items you are going to download twice before doing so ... when installing go slow and read/understand everything and select the options of install if possible .

call the *real* local authorities and give them information . this is one way to help , the information can help shut them down ... eventually .

as an old boy told me many years ago ... "luck aint got nothin' to do with it" . make sure that you put the screws and other items in an order that you can follow for re-assembly . the screws can be (bet on "are") different lengths/sizes . if need be , there is nothing wrong with making chicken scratches on paper .

more coffee (mumble mumble mumble) make sure that you can display the folders .... go to the control panel and click on "folder options" . a small "folder options" window will open . under the general tab select "open each folder" and "double click to open ..." . click "apply" . select the "view" tab and if the "apply to all folders" is grayed out , you are good to go ... if not , click on it and then click on "apply" . close these windows . these settings allow one to see all the steps/windows involved in navigation individually and keeps one from "getting lost" (think hansel and gretel with none of those pesky birds) . to the right of "high performance" (that you have selected) , click on "change plan settings" . this will bring you to the "edit plan settings" page (for the high performance mode) make sure that "turn off display" and "put computer to sleep" are both *never* . --------------------------------------------------------------------------- next , click on "change advanced power settings" ... a small window will open , it is labeled (tab) "advanced settings" . scroll down through the list (it is short) until you see "processor power management" . click on the "+" sign to expand that section . expand the "minimum processor state" and set it to 5% . expand "system cooling policy" and set it to "active" . expand "maximum processor state" and set it to 100% . go to the bottom tight and click "apply" then "ok" . now , back out of where you are at ... look at the "change plan" window for "high performance" ... click on save changes . close all of the windows that are open . the processor should now be capable of running in the rock-n-roll mode . the max setting may already be correct ... but one needs to make sure .

"As long as they try to make the os more like a computer and less like a fisher - price product it should do fine." CFA when they release this supposed new OS , i wonder if they are going to cut users a break on the price on changing from W7 or (more to the point) W8.1 ? yeah , riiiight ... /me checks the sky for aviating members of the porcine family .

the obvious question ... have you made sure that the cpu cooling air path is clear ? if the cpu is overheating it will fold back to protect itself . have you set the windows "cpu min/max" to max = 100% ? this would apply to both the battery and AC operation . the "speed step" to the best of my knowledge and understanding is based upon detection of cpu loading . the cpu will throttle itself back when it does not need to run "full tilt" ... however (based upon what i understand about it) the windows side can limit the max frequency . also , while in control panel / all control panel items / power options / edit plan settings , check the "cpu cooling" setting that you are using in your present power scheme . as an example , i use the "high performance mode" and set the cpu max speed for 100% on ac power and battery and set the "cooling" to "active" (in both power modes) . i see that "NT reg optimizer" shows on the list ... all i can say is be careful ... it's like warm nitro .

hmmm ... your processor is running at 1.65GHz ... the ram speed and a couple of other factors (such as shared video ram) affect performance . by today's standards for the average "load" on a laptop it is on the slow side . shutting down all but the essential services and programs will help . a couple of the others here can mention which programs to run in order for us to "see" what is running in the background , how much the swap file is being used , etc . an example of a "slow" processor is a friend's machine i had two weeks ago ... it was/is a toshiba with the same speed processor . man , you wouldn't believe the "cutesy" stuff she had on it . there were a lot of programs running in the background that did not need to be running . i pared down the running programs to the bare essentials and using "revo uninstaller" to remove the superfluous fluff , still , it was a bit slow . the antivirus was the next target on the hit list ; it was AVG (which i had installed a couple of years ago) . nonetheless , avg has changed and it is not what it used to be for "lean" ... i un-installed avg (using the clean up/out tool from their site) and installed "avast" . the performance increase was noticeable . to be honest in this thread , for the sake of "no stone unturned" ; i cleaned up the registry . (disclaimer : this is NOT for the novice or semi-experienced to attempt ... don't even think about it) although the performance was notably better , it was still on the slow side . it pretty much boils down to , as i like to say , "the wagon is loaded down and the horse is too small to pull it" .

it sure looks like yer good to go . as for strange goings on and finding solutions to problems ... many years ago a guy bought a brand new automobile . he noticed a rattle in it and took it back to the dealership to have them look into it . the mechanics thought they had found the problem and turned the car back to the guy . a couple of days later the rattle made it's presence known . back to the dealership and after a bit , back to the owner . yep ... the rattle showed up again . the song and dance went on for some time . finally the dealership gave the guy a replacement vehicle as they could not fix the problem . the powers that be gave the green light to finding the cause of the rattle no matter what it took . after checking all kinds of stuff , they started disassembling the vehicle . they finally narrowed the problem down to a section of the frame . they cut the frame open and inside was a sealed coke bottle with a slip of paper in it . the slip of paper was removed and it read : "congratulations , you finally found the problem" .

a little clarification ... i do not believe that anyone was accusing you of wantingly and knowingly supporting a company that plagiarizes others . plagiarism and it's sundry forms ... you are correct , it is difficult at best for the average person to know anything about who is doing what with who's properties real and intellectual . (about as difficult as finding snake lips) as for "posting it on a billboard to make all aware" ... personally , i feel that it would be in bad form and cast a bad light on malwarebytes (and many other companies in the same boat) . there are other legal aspects to this that are best left to the corporate dogs . another point as an example ... the automobile industry ... how many recalls and "correction" notifications really happen ? i owned a car that had a recall ... i did not know about it until three years after the recall was *supposedly* made public . i suppose that some of the major recalls would be hard to "hide" ... say that spastic acceleration problem that was running rampant a couple of years ago . there is a lot of "stuff" out there to know ... i believe it to be impossible for a single person to be aware of all of it .

more information is needed : what does the update reference ? how long has this been happening ? make/model of computer .

yeppers ... all one should have to do is : make sure the machine is connected to the internet plug the keyboard into usb port on the laptop wait for windows to do it's thing some notifications will appear in the lower left corner : "windows is installing software to run your device ... would you like to hear a duck quack while you wait ?" a month ?! lemme guess ... it is coming from china , duct taped to the back of a sea turtle ?

it would seem that the latest and greatest is what your machine is actually (or is capable of) using . why it does not show in the P&F list is (yet) another windows mystery . according to the blurb about your computer , the version you installed is the correct one for a 64bit/W7 system that does not use an itainium processor . (i wonder if itainium is related to unobtainium) . you may want to query a forum over at MS about this .

hmmm ... according to the link you posted the new version "stashes" some code so that it does not have to be retrieved all the time from a server . double check your version , as it does apply to W7 : Locate the Msxml6.dll file in the following directory: C:\Windows\System32 Right-click the Msxml6.dll file, and then click Properties. Click the Version tab to see the version information. Note In Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008, click the Details tab insteadthere is a "fix" for the 4.xx versions , it is the second one down in the "how to obtain this update" . from what i read , there may be cases when the server is too busy or rejects the request that there will be a problem with rendering a page . this is what the "fix" in 4.xx is for . also , the "programs and features" may not have updated ... and would not show the new version .

you are quite welcome . additionally , i checked three of my windows machines ... all are on version 6 . hmmm ... you may want to do a little google recon and see if there is a reason why your machine did not "upgrade" .