Q. Not long ago I renewed my Norton/Symantec software agreement and downloaded the latest virus software they recommended. Since then, whenever I open Microsoft Outlook, I get the following error:
C:
program(tilde)1
micros(tilde)3
office10
outlook.exe.
I can click on the OK button, reopen Outlook, and it runs fine. I followed the Symantec test procedures and even sent them an e-mail concerning the problem but never heard back. Any ideas?
A. In these spam-spangled times it’s hard to blame anybody for losing a piece of e-mail, including corporate giants like Symantec Corp., but it’s a shame yours was bobbled, because the company’s tech-support experts know all about this glitch. They have posted instructions about fixing it at the Symantec Web site (www.symantec.com).
It turns out that in some cases–like yours, Mr. C.–there is a so-called runtime error when Norton’s AntiSpam2005 tool attempts to scan for adware in messages in Outlook’s mail boxes. The company says that the bug is fixed by going to the LiveUpdate area in the Norton software and ordering a new download of data.
Or you can remove the part of Norton that scans Outlook and be done with it. See the instructions at the Symantec site. Just use the search term “office10
outlook.exe” there.
Q. Each time I start Broderbund’s Family Tree Maker, their spyware called DSSAgent is installed on my computer. This means each time I start the software, I have to remove the spyware.
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Is there any way to permanently remove it? If not, I will switch to a competitive software.
A. You are not alone in your displeasure at reputable companies with long histories selling software that includes spyware like this DSSAgent, which is installed when some programs are installed.
This scheme plants a master program on your C: drive and then makes a change in the system registry to run that program at each bootup. When the master program is run, it creates a module to handle the actual spyware activity. So even though you remove the secondary module that gets created with each running of the master software, the thing returns the next time you boot up.
You didn’t notice an option during setup to reject having this module installed. Broderbund has responded to displeasure by posting a removal tool at this address:
http://support.learningco.com/brodcastpatch.asp
This type of scheme is known as a Trash Application, or Trash App, and is not used just for relatively benign, albeit irritating, stunts like serving up ads for actual companies. These booby traps also are used by schemes like the browser hijackers that take over a Web browser and force it to point to the same page at bootup. They also run key loggers that track every keystroke and send it to a sponsor.
Q. I am at an impasse and don’t know who else could know the answer. I have an ancient (court-reporting) system on which I produce simple text-only documents in ASCII. That software automatically adds the extension .001 and then .002 and so on.
On my current Windows XP system, I rename it filename.TXT, and that’s exactly how it appears in my system. However, my office claims the file appears as filename.TXT.001. Any idea why and how to eliminate that .001?
Susan Keepsakes @aol.com.
A. There are none so blind as those who cannot see, eh Ms. K?
Pardon my fractured aphorism, but the problem is that you cannot see what is happening because the Windows operating system is set to hide the file extensions when it displays icons showing file names. So when you rename a file by right-clicking on its icon and adding the extension .txt to those files that have extensions like .001, Windows is adding the .txt before the .001.
Because it can be dangerous to let people rename file extensions, Windows comes with the extensions hidden. But it’s easy to override.
Open any folder and click on the Tools item at the top. Now select Folder Options and then open the tab called View in the box that comes up. Here you will find a long list of options for how files and folders are treated, including one check box to toggle displaying of extensions.
You will note that with this change you are allowed to rename files with both a new file name and any extension you care to add. If you put the wrong extension on a file, it will not open properly at best, and at worst it could trigger a system crash as software tries to parse stuff that it cannot understand.
Once you make the change, you can use the batch command built in to Windows XP to rename a whole pile of those 001, 002, 003 files as orderly text files. Just select them all with the mouse cursor and then right-click on the top one. Now give it a name like file.txt, and you will get each file with consecutive names along the lines of file(1).txt, file(2).txt and so on.
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Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at [email protected] or via snail mail at the baiduhai, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through this column. Add your point of view at chicagotribune.com/askjim.