NEW Music Software Discussion & Help Forums Now with Private Messaging, Profiles, Avatars, Better Searching & Much More!

The World's Biggest Music Software Site

Home | Site Map | News | Search | What's New? | Discussion | Add Listing | Advertising

Below is one of thousands of messages contained in our Music Software Discussion & Help Forum

Protect yourself with a decoy system... (TIPS HERE) Posted by Macintorque (from: 64.12.96.171) on September 14, 2002 at 02:27:58: In Reply to: Re: virus alert posted by Jason Horton on September 02, 2002 at 05:27:20: It's also good to test - run your programs in a safe partition or on a dummy system. For example, on a PC, you can use the freeware programs InControl and TestRUN to both monitor and deflect most changes to your system after installations or running new programs. On a Mac, there are similar programs, and many backup utilities will help you discover which files have changed and allow you to replace them with fresh safe copies. One freeware program called Verifier (i think) lets you generate a checksum (kinda like a password) for any file you choose. After that, any changes whatsoever to that file will immediate show up when you run Verifier again to compute the checksum numeric code. For those Mac users who need an expedient way to test programs here's another way.... use freeware SystemPicker to change your active system folder to any other available system folder on any available drive. This is perfect for fooling those programs that install extensions and control panels and the like without your permission. You can even create a dummy system folder just for this purpose. Using freeware, DropAttribute, or any other Typer utility, set the type/creator codes of a blank file to match the Finder, and put it into a new folder. Rename the file Finder, and rename the folder System Folder. Need a blank file? Delete your Clipboard file in your system folder and restart. A blank one will show up. Move it out of the system folder and rename it. OK. A system folder needs a system file, so create a blank System file in the same way, this time setting the type/creator codes to that of the real System file. Once these two dummy files are in your new System Folder, all you have to do is create the corresponding subfolders in it to get it to fool your new programs. The main subfolders to create are Extensions, Control Panels, Preferences, and Apple Menu Items. Just to be sure, you should create all of the other subfolders that you notice in your real system folder. OK after all that is done, you should be able to run SystemPicker (freeware) to set the active system folder to this new fake one. You do not need to restart. To avoid restarting, hold down the optionkey while SystemPicker is running. You will see "restart" change to "OK". Now, when you run a new installer or program while this configuration is active, files will be added to the fake system folder and not to your real one. This process is even more enhanced if you put this fake system folder on another drive, or on another partition. Partitioning is my favorite technique. By the way, you could always create a REAL system folder on another partition and use SystemPicker to switch to and from it. I often do this on my system so that I can run Norton Utilities on MacOS 7.5.3 to fix my MacOS 8.1 hard drive---all without needing the CD-ROM. Well I hope somebody somewhere found this useful Follow Ups: Post a Followup Name: E-Mail: Subject: Comments: : It's also good to test - run your programs in a safe partition or on a dummy system. For example, on a PC, you can use the freeware programs InControl and TestRUN to both monitor and deflect most changes to your system after installations or running new programs. : On a Mac, there are similar programs, and many backup utilities will help you discover which files have changed and allow you to replace them with fresh safe copies. One freeware program called Verifier (i think) lets you generate a checksum (kinda like a password) for any file you choose. After that, any changes whatsoever to that file will immediate show up when you run Verifier again to compute the checksum numeric code. : For those Mac users who need an expedient way to test programs here's another way.... : use freeware SystemPicker to change your active system folder to any other available system folder on any available drive. This is perfect for fooling those programs that install extensions and control panels and the like without your permission. : You can even create a dummy system folder just for this purpose. Using freeware, DropAttribute, or any other Typer utility, set the type/creator codes of a blank file to match the Finder, and put it into a new folder. : Rename the file Finder, and rename the folder System Folder. Need a blank file? Delete your Clipboard file in your system folder and restart. A blank one will show up. Move it out of the system folder and rename it. OK. A system folder needs a system file, so create a blank System file in the same way, this time setting the type/creator codes to that of the real System file. Once these two dummy files are in your new System Folder, all you have to do is create the corresponding subfolders in it to get it to fool your new programs. The main subfolders to create are Extensions, Control Panels, Preferences, and Apple Menu Items. Just to be sure, you should create all of the other subfolders that you notice in your real system folder. : OK after all that is done, you should be able to run SystemPicker (freeware) to set the active system folder to this new fake one. You do not need to restart. To avoid restarting, hold down the optionkey while SystemPicker is running. You will see "restart" change to "OK". : Now, when you run a new installer or program while this configuration is active, files will be added to the fake system folder and not to your real one. This process is even more enhanced if you put this fake system folder on another drive, or on another partition. Partitioning is my favorite technique. : By the way, you could always create a REAL system folder on another partition and use SystemPicker to switch to and from it. I often do this on my system so that I can run Norton Utilities on MacOS 7.5.3 to fix my MacOS 8.1 hard drive---all without needing the CD-ROM. : Well I hope somebody somewhere found this useful Click here to be notified by email when someone replies to your message [ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Music Software Discussion & Help Page ] [ FAQ ]

Shareware Music Machine Is Proudly Sponsored by MUSIC SOFTWARE Windows 95 to XP  Windows 3.1  Macintosh  BeOS  Linux  OS/2  DOS  Atari  RESOURCES Competitions-Prizes  Tutorials & Advice  Discussion Forum  Reference Books  Free Content For Webmasters  Free Banners  News Archive  Search  COMPANY INFO Advertising Media Kit  Hitsquad Home Page  Privacy Policy  SMM People  Web Cam  Contact Info

Home | Site Map | News | Search | What's New? | Discussion | Add Listing | Advertising The Musicians Web Center for music resource and industry information on the Net Click here to add Shareware Music Machine to your del.icio.us bookmarks

Copyright © Hitsquad Pty Ltd 1995 - 2008 All rights reserved.