If You Want to Tinker, Be a Thinker, or You'll Turn Your Puter into a Clinker

If You Want to Tinker, Be a Thinker -
Or You'll Turn Your Puter into a Clinker
by Mike Smith

We recently received a request for help at the Puter Tutor
Message Board, and realized that the answer to the question
was one that every computer user could benefit from. At the
very least, understanding the answer could save a LOT of
unnecessary grief!

The question is below, but the details of all the
registry editing have been left out for 2
reasons:

1) I do not encourage playing around in the
registry if you are not experienced and do not know
what you are doing.

2) The actual details of what was edited are not
important to the answers and most folks wouldn't
understand them anyway. (If you want to see the details
you can go to the Puter Tutor Community Message Board
and read the post.http://pub57.ezboard.com/bputercentral )

So, are you ready? The information below is absolutely
critical to avoiding computer disasters!!

--------------------------------------------------------

Question:

Hi, I'm Sara and I was trying to get rid of a sub7 virus
but messed up things so I can't get into any of my
applications. Here's what I did....

1.Click on Start>Run, type Regedit then hit the Enter key.

Yada-yada-yada.

Now I can't get my freemem, zone alarm pro, or any of the
Windows stuff to work. I have Windows ME and when I try
to get back into the regedit.exe to fix it I get an
"the path to this application does not exist" pop-up.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Sara,

First off, the bad news. It looks like you are going
to either have to reinstall your OS or go to Safe Mode
and see if you can to a previous Restore Pint. You are
saving Restore Points, aren't you?

You might try going into "regedit" from Safe Mode but
if the registry itself is damaged, you are stuck. One
of the most difficult things to get across to folks is
that the stupid tech people that write all these fixes
think they are dealing with someone that knows what
they do. The seem to think that there are no Newbies
or inexperienced people on the Internet.

The following Rules should precede any instructions that
tell you how to do something in "regedit" or before doing
anything that will change your Operating System.

RULE SET 1

1. Do NOT go into the Registry unless you know exactly
what you are doing. This can leave your Puter inoperable!

2. Before you start playing in the Registry, make a
backup to a disk or another drive on your Puter so
you can restore it if you make a mistake!

3. Do NOT go into the Registry unless you know exactly
what you are doing. This can leave your Puter inoperable!

4. If you are running a later version of Windows that
lets you create Restore Points, do this immediately
before doing ANY KIND of alterations on your system
including installing a new program. If your Windows
version does not include System Restore points then
invest in a good program like Goback that will do the
job for you.
http://www.roxio.com/en/products/goback/index.jhtml

5. Do NOT go into the Registry unless you know exactly
what you are doing. This can leave your Puter inoperable!

6. If you are going to go there, you should already
know these rules.


RULE SET 2

1. Copy Rule Set 1 to a text document, make it very bold,
use red text, print it out and stick it on the front of
your Puter.

2. Always run a quality Anti-Virus program. If you can't
afford one, get rid of your Puter because the investment
doesn't mean much to you. $30.00 to $40.00 to protect a
$1,000.00 and up investment is a no brainer.

I use McAfee Clinic and have for 3 years. Check it out HERE
http://cmymtc.com/mcafeeendorse.htm

3. If your Anti-Virus program does not have auto-update that
updates every day, do updates manually no less than every 2
days. Most Anti-Virus programs expire after a year so they
will quit updating and you won't know it.

4. Update your Anti-Virus files no less than every other day.

5. Do Windows Update at least once a week to keep up with the
latest security fixes from Microsoft.

6. Update your Anti-Virus files no less than every other day.

7. If you are on the Internet for more than 37 seconds a day
run a Firewall. You can get a free version of ZoneAlarm from
ZoneLabs. www.zonelabs.com

8. Do NOT go into the Registry unless you know exactly what
you are doing. This can leave your Puter inoperable!

9. Update your Anti-Virus files no less than every other day.

10. Make sure your Anti-Virus program is running all the time.

No, old age has not caused me to repeat myself over and over.
You DID see some repetition in the above Rules.

Hopefully that will burn them into your mind because it is
that important!

Happy Putering!
Mike Smith
-------------------------------
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