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Monday, October 17, 2005

Elite Toolbar Remover Information Page

The information in Virtual Grub Street's computer postings is the result of thousands of web searches. It can not, however, possibly be complete. The subject is vast and constantly changing. Moreover, vendor uninstall tools and other freeware removal tools do not necessarily remove all of an infection from your computer. Vendor uninstall tools, for instance, may silently leave cookies or other tracking software installed. It is suggestible to follow up a removal with one or more adware scans and/or to do an inspection using a HijackThis log. The information on the page is not guaranteed correct and any use you may choose to make of it is entirely at your own risk.


*

Intro: The Elite Toolbar Remover was created by an Italian male named Gian Carlo Calo who is very careful to keep his personal information off of the web. Calo would seem to be one of several Italians who have formed the company Simply Tech. The company offers the freeware Elite Toolbar Remover as well as freeware encryption programs. Paypal donations are requested on a discrete location at the bottom of the page.

Latest Version. SimplyTech's new Elite Toolbar Remover has just announced another update (to Version 2.1.2) that removes SearchMiracle.EliteBar [a.k.a. YupSearch (see YupSearch Addendum), Elite Toolbar, Elitum, ETBrun, LQ, etc.] even without putting the computer in Safe Mode.

vs. PokaPoka. The site JayLoden.com, however, recently reports (Oct 14, 2005 01:20AM) that the tool is presently unable to remove variants of PokaPoka above pokapoka75:

"There is a new version of the ETRemover from SimplyTech out, so if you're experiencing problems with EliteBar and/or PokaPoka I suggest you try that. I gave it a go on the most current pokapoka variant I could get (pokapoka76) and it didn't remove it at the time of writing. However, I will be sending the author of ETRemover a dump file of pokapoka76.exe and hopefully he will be able to update ETRemover."

vs. EliteBar.d. As VGS reported, on May 22, the Elite Toolbar Remover can not remove adw_elitebar.d. This variant utilizes entirely random files names. The variant is not common.

Removes other malware. Calo claims that the tool can remove the following other infections, as well: EliteBar; EliteToolbar; EliteSidebar; BargainBuddy; Browser Aid; CashToolbar; FreshBar; GameSpy; MoneyTree; Nail.exe; NaviSearch; navpsrvc.exe (also known as: W32/Forbot-EF, worm); SearchMeUp; SideStep; Spybot - Randex; SupportSoft; SurfSideKick; Win32.RBot; Winmon.exe (also known as: W32/Agobot-KA, trojan); WinMoviePlugIn; and InternetExplorer Plugin. Limited searching on these claims indicates that the tool does in fact remove these adware/malware items.

EliteBar fights back. The creators of SearchMiracle.EliteBar have specifically attempted to develope new variants to target the Elite Toolbar Remover (a fine recommendation of Calo's skills). Newer versions of the Remover have involved features and instructions in order to overcome these counterattacks:


The variants in circulation [since] the end of January 2005... do a cache detect of the words: "EliteToolbarRemoverV10.zip" which was the old name of our previous version 1.0.

If you are trying to download it from a mirror site you will receive the following error:

''Cannot copy file, Cannot read from file source or disk''

This is not a message from your operating system, but a stupid message from the malware that is actually running in your PC.

The new variants of the malware also completely conceal the presence of the EliteToolbarRemoverV10.exe, so that if you are opening the archive you can only see the readme.doc file that is attached to that and you cannot see the *.exe even though it is
[actually] there! After all, these are very clever programmers, aren't they?

Anyway, it is
[certain] that these people will also blacklist the new name of the zip we are using now, so if this occurs... we suggest you to download the software to another PC and [put] it on a diskette or a USB pendrive and run it on the infected PC in Safe Mode, as usual.

It is not clear whether or not these instructions are continue to apply to the newer versions of the tool. The instructions regarding running the tool in Safe Mode are not supposed to be necessary as of Version 2.1.2.

Special Offer. For those who find the 2.x.x. series does not work for them, SimplyTech is also continuing to download a 1.3.2 version from here:


In the words of Giancarlo Calo: "[W]e have decided to take the old v.1.3.x and fill it with the latest malware definitions, so we can now offer the v.1.3.2 that is more stable but is and remain a discontinued Beta product.It will no longer be supported, however, nor does SimplyTech have any specific plans to update its definitions in the future."

VGS on the Remover. The successive updates of the ETR can be followed by reading the following articles previously posted in the pages of Virtual Grub Street:


Downloads:

Latest Version. Version 2.1.2 of the Elite ToolBar Remover can be downloaded from the following locations:



Previous Versions. Previous versions of the Elite Toolbar Remover can be downloaded from the following locations:

Special Case Software. When downloading the Elite Toolbar Remover, the user may get an message indicating that she or he needs to install the following files: Msinet.ocx or Comctl32.ocx. Should this be the case, it will be necessary to download one of the following auxiliary files:

Calo recommends using the "Setup Kit" over the "DLL.zip" option.




Other VGS Freeware/Trialware Information Pages:




Also see:



[re: SearchMiracle.EliteBar Search Miracle Elite Bar EliteToolBar Elite Toolbar Elite Tool Bar Elitum ETBrun YupSearch Yup Search.]

American Life in Poetry #29: Debra Nystrom.

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Many of you have seen flocks of birds or schools of minnows acting as if they were guided by a common intelligence, turning together, stopping together. Here is a poem by Debra Nystrom that beautifully describes a flight of swallows returning to their nests, acting as if they were of one mind. Notice how she extends the description to comment on the way human behavior differs from that of the birds.




Cliff Swallows
--Missouri Breaks


Is it some turn of wind
that funnels them all down at once, or
is it their own voices netting
to bring them in--the roll and churr
of hundreds searing through river light
and cliff dust, each to its precise
mud nest on the face--
none of our own isolate
groping, wishing need could be sent
so unerringly to solace. But
this silk-skein flashing is like heaven
brought down: not to meet ground
or water--to enter
the riven earth and disappear.


Reprinted from "Torn Sky," Sarabande Books, 2004, by permission of the poet. Copyright (c) 2004 by Debra Nystrom, an Associate Professor of English at the University of Virginia. This weekly column is supported by
The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.





Also at Virtual Grub Street by/about Ted Kooser:

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Musings on Computers, Nature and Stuff.

I'm plodding today. Building Virtual Grub Street's family of blogs is oppresive at times. Wrestling with the various computer equipment involved (all of it in pretty marginal condition, to begin with) is regularly disheartening. Between designed obsolescence and poor product design it verges on the miraculous when one manages to get anything done.

Of course, without computers an undertaking like VGS (or, for that matter, freelance writing at large) would be impossible. Each new dilemma adds just a bit more to a skill package which one's friends can call upon one to provide (along with however many hours) for free. Well, you get the idea.

One source of respite is nature. When I first came to the Lake Worth, Florida, area, some eleven years ago, there were perhaps as many as a dozen Swainson's Hawks (Buteo swainsoni) within a ten mile radius -- generally two mating pairs in the immediate neighborhood. The last of the hawks retreated several years ago, the local woodlands having given way before the walled communities that are constantly being constructed in the area.

To check out my book, Henry David
Thoreau and Two Other Autistic
Lives
, click here!
It was a surprise, then, when I saw a fine, large specimen, in the rufus stage, alight, in the tiny remaining swatch of woodland nextdoor, two weeks ago now. I do occasionally hear the cry of the Swainson's, in the distance, when the noise of passing traffic is momentarily stilled (although, it is difficult to be sure whether a single cry has come from the far more vocal Osprey or from the Swainson's) and suspect that there may be a mating pair as close as a mile or two inland.

Several years ago, I noticed a young Swainson's swoop from a tree, at the corner of Lake Worth and Kirk Roads, and take a Starling in flight. He flew with it into a nearby fenced yard. Generally there is an aggresive dog in the yard, but, apparently, the hawk knew its schedule, and, when I did not hear the dog chase off the hawk, I peered over the fence to see the prey clasped securely and pinned to the ground. The hawk, however, noticed me, after a time, and chose to fly off in order to prepare his meal in privacy. When I turned around to leave, I noticed myself being glowered at very intently by a gentleman who had stopped perhaps twenty feet behind me, in his pick-up truck, to ask why I was staring over other people's fences into their private yards. I explained that a Swainson's Hawk had taken his prey into the yard which explanation was lost upon him.






Other Nature Topics:

American Life in Poetry #28: Ron Rash.

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Although this poem by North Carolina native Ron Rash may seem to be just about trout fishing, it is the first of several poems Rash has written about his cousin who died years ago. Indirectly, the poet gives us clues about this loss. By the end, we see that in passing from life to death, the fish's colors dull; so, too, may fade the memories of a cherished life long lost.



Speckled Trout

Water-flesh gleamed like mica:
orange fins, red flankspots, a char
shy as ginseng, found only
in spring-flow gaps, the thin clear
of faraway creeks no map
could name. My cousin showed me
those hidden places. I loved
how we found them, the way we
followed no trail, just stream-sound
tangled in rhododendron,
to where slow water opened
a hole to slip a line in
and lift as from a well bright
shadows of another world,
held in my hand, their color
already starting to fade.



First published in "Weber Studies," 1996, and reprinted from "Raising the Dead," Iris Press, 2002, by permission of the author. Copyright (c) 1996 by Ron Rash, a writer and professor of Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University, whose newest novel is "Saints at the River," Picador Press, 2005. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.



Also at Virtual Grub Street by/about Ted Kooser: