Hello guys, It’s Readers Query time again. This time one of our reader faced a problem of missing Boot.ini file. The computer was not able to boot because it was not able to find the proper location of the boot files, thus creating a problem. But for this simple reason, you cannot format your computer, and when you know its just a small file. What can then be done?
Usually when this file is deleted, it automatically rewrites a new file, and this booting the system. But in this case, it was not. Whats the solution then ?

Well, to this problem what can be done is booting XP from a external device, be it Floppy, Pen drive or even a Disk. You just need to copy the booting files into these devices, and all is then controlled by XP.
You need to have a second computer, in case your computer is down too. But if it is healthy and doing good, prepare a copy NOW !!!

Firstly format your device like Floppy, or Pen drive in a FAT File system, and then copy “ntldr” and “ntdetect.com” files from the i386 folder of XP disk. Then you need to copy your Boot.ini file to the drive to make it bootable.
If in case you need to write the whole code of this file, Follow this small tutorial for the same.
That’s it You can then boot your computer from any external device.

Editing The Boot.ini File

Boot.ini file is an initialization file, but editing it for some people has been a bad experience. In this post i will let you know the codes and their meaning and also how to edit them easily. By default this is hidden in Xp, but in case of win 98, it can be searched.
To access the file in Xp :-

• Right click on My Computer and select Properties.
• Go to the Advanced tab and click Settings in Startup and Recovery section.
• Click Edit and you will see the Boot.ini file opened in a notepad.

Now File says something like this

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect

The First line [Boot loader] just states the Booting Process.
timeout=30 is the time that will be provided to you to select from the list of OS’s installed. This works only in case you have multiple OS’s installed. It can be reduced easily, but make sure you give enough time to react upon it. 10 Seconds is the appropriate time.
The third line says multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect. multi(0) tells us the IDE on which the drive is attached to. Usually its Primary only. disk(0) shows the number of Hard disks mounted. rdisk(0) tells us from which disk it is booting. In case of SCSI drives, it might not show up. partition(1) tell that on which Logical partition the OS is installed on.
After that it says “Microsoft Windows XP Professional” that is the name that shows up on the OS selection page. You can put your own name there as well.
This was the editable part of Boot.ini file.
Now in case if you delete the file accidentally then you need not worry, you don’t need to create the file again. Xp will create a file of its own, and your system is safe.
But in case if someone edits it and puts in the wrong information, then it you system will find the file but not the correct path. So that might harm your Computer.
So, this was a small post on Boot.ini file and its editing. IF you got anything more to say or add, Do Comment.

Bit Defender Antivirus 2008 and Kaspersky Internet Security 6 Months Trials

I have been watching the extended trials that almost every security vendor is giving away. But I was never interested in the offers as I had a full version of NOD32 Internet Security Suite. That was more than enough for me. I have been using NOD32 for a long time now and I love it. It’s like set it and forget it. But it started creating problems for me today. One of it’s modules was crashing continuously. Instead of looking into the problem, I straight away decided to install and test a new antivirus. I didn’t want to buy a new Antivirus so I decided to opt for a 6 months trial of Kaspersky Internet Security which would be more than enough for me. And I also want to share with my readers about how to get 6 months trial of Kaspersky or Bitdefender. So here’s the process for the two popular antiviruses.

Kaspersky Internet Security

Just go to the following URL:
http://www.kaspersky.com/de/20814_72814_329.html

On this page, you will find an activation code and the download link to Kaspersky Internet Security version 7.0.1.325 (at the time of publishing this article).

Download the software and then install it. When asked for Activation key, select “Activate using activation key” and press Next. Then give the activation key that you found on the webpage. This will install Kaspersky Internet Security 6 months trial. Stay happy

BitDefender 2008

Just go to the following URL:

http://www.bitdefender.com/site/Promotions/event08/

This page is in Italian but you only have to enter the following sequentially:

First Name
Last Name
Product
Verification code

And you’ll get the license key of your selected Bitdefender product trial for 6 months.

How To Remove Boot.vbs Virus

Today my antivirus (NOD32 Security Suite) was creating troubles for me. After every five minutes, a request to debug the application would appear because the some module of NOD32 would crash and then reload. It has been a long time that I have been using NOD32. So I decided to test some other antivirus. There were two good choices for me. One Bitdefender and then second Kaspersky. The problem was that I didn’t want to buy any one of those. So I decided to use a 6 months trial of Kaspersky Internet Security which will be more than enough for me to test it. Here is my previous article about how to get Kaspersky Internet Secutiry trial of 6 months.

I downloaded it and installed it. It began scanning my PC. And to my amazement, it detected a threat that NOD32 was unaware of!! It was the boot.vbs virus. I thought it would be better to remove the virus manually rather than relying on Kaspersky. That way I would learn more. So here are the steps which I did to remove the boot.vbs virus:

1. Go to Task Manager –> Processes and End the following processes in order:
   1. dxdlg.exe
   2. wscript.exe
2. Go to Start –> Run –> regedit –> Open the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
3. In the right hand pane, select Userinit and delete everything except “C:\windows\system32\userinit.exe”
4. 
5. Make sure the processes wscript.exe and dxdlg.exe are not running.
6. Delete the following files
   1. C:\Windows\System32\dxdlg.exe
   2. C:\Windows\System32\boot.vbs
7. Restart your computer.

Hopefully everything will be cleaner now and your computer will be free from boot.vbs virus :-). Please share your experiences.