See Also
© 2006 David R. Snow. All rights reserved.
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WinMaven is an advanced Windows 2000/XP/Vista diagnostic utility designed specifically for troubleshooting startup and networking errors. It functions much like the Windows msconfig utility, but has far greater scope. WinMaven covers many more startup sources than msconfig, and additionally covers a large variety of networking and Internet Explorer settings and extensions. In addition to this greater scope, WinMaven can also provide greater information about the applications and files involved, as well as generate log files containing comprehensive information. These log files can be easily transmitted or emailed to other locations for analysis.
A brief example of WinMaven in Action
Here is a screen shot of WinMaven viewing a log file of a computer that has been annoying its owner with constant pop-ups. The malware infestation on this computer had progressed to a point that the computer could no longer connect to the Internet. WinMaven is small enough fit on a 1.4 MB floppy disk, so it was easily placed on the infected computer. A log file was made and emailed to a technician, who was able to see a good deal about the problems with this computer. Here we see a suspicious looking file in the start up applications page of WinMaven:
The name "savtbjwh" does not look like the name of a legitimate application. Googling on this name results in no hits, which in itself is suspicious, but leaves us in the dark as to the identity and nature of this item. However, with WinMaven we can obtain critical additional information by right-clicking on a line and selecting "Properties:":
This malware had apparently tried to hide by using a randomly generated file name to hinder detection. With the WinMaven log we determine that the producers of this vermin had the impudence to include their corporate name and copyright in the version info! Googling SpamBlockerUtility.com showed that this file was pop-up producing adware, and also brought up removal information. Results were also found for other suspicious items shown in the log file. Removing the suspicious start-up entries from the registry was as easy as right-clicking on the entry in WinMaven and selecting "Delete" from the pop-up menu. In cases where it is not sure whether an item is the source of a problem the user can uncheck the item, select "apply" to temporarily remove the item, and then reboot to see the results of disabling the product. The item can then be either re-enabled by checking it and again clicking "Apply," or permanently removed by right-clicking it and selecting "Delete" from the menu. The owner of the above computer was shortly able to re-connect to the Internet and perform a scan at Housecall.com, then scan with Ad-aware and Spybot. He is now enjoying much faster, pop-up free networking, and his computer is a lot faster.
WinMaven is now in the late beta phase of development, and should be ready for distribution in the near future. You can try the beta version now! Click Download in the column on the left side of this page.
For general information on virus and spyware removal see the following site:
You can contact me at winmaven@gmail.com. I am very interested in your suggestions, criticism, questions, or reports of problems. If you experience problems or have questions about a specific item, please attach a log. (Note that WinMaven logs compress nicely when enclosed in a compressed folder.)
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