laptop - Lee Harvey's Target Range

Posts tagged with "laptop"

Grisoft AVG Free and encrypted All Users\Application Data folder = bad

Monday, 21. May 2007, 13:08:01

Hopefully this post will save others from the hassle of debugging a non-updating AVG Free 7 installation...

I recently decided to encrypt some folders on my laptop (for added security in case of theft/loss). Anyhow, one of the folders I decided to encrypt was my C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data folder. Well, one sub-folder under this was Grisoft. Sadly, after encrypting that folder (and all subfolders and file contents therein), my AVG Free 7 refused to update successfully. A simple uininstall/reinstall did not fix the problem, which was frustrating.

I fired-up Filemon and noticed AVG was trying to do something in one of my recently encrypted folders. Which led me to my fix...

Uninstall AVG Free 7.
Reboot.
Unencrypt just the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Grisoft folder (and all subfolders and file contents).
Reinstall AVG Free 7.
Perform the AVG Free 7 auto-update.

NOTE: Success finally!

Enjoy

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Firefox's local server port listening requirement

Tuesday, 21. November 2006, 17:34:40

Firefox, windows, comodo, laptop ...

So I've been experimenting with some free Windows personal firewalls, and I come across one I thoroughly enjoy: Comodo personal firewall. It's fast, lean, and consumes very little CPU -- which is perfect for my laptop setup. In fact, I found it superior to ZoneAlarm, and better than Kerio in terms of CPU/resources, so I'm keeping it (for now).

Anyhow, I goto use Firefox 2.0 (with very minimal extensions added), and to my surprise I discover:

Firefox is trying to act as a server.

Hmm, no other Windows browser (that I know of) needs to do this, so I answer: Deny.

To my dismay, Firefox fails to connect to and browse the Internet without allowing this local server port! WT? So I disable all my extensions, restart Firefox, and the same thing occurs. Grr.

Googling around, I find some excuses as to why Firefox needs to do this, but IMO, this is just bad design. No average user (with a personal firewall installed) should be forced to setup a rule specifically for Firefox, but I did so anyway.

You've been ~~warned~~ informed.

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