Monday, October 20, 2008

How to block Flash Animation on Websites from loading into your Web Browser

Flash provides a great way to make your web page interactive with graphical illustrations etc. But on the other hand visiting flash sites takes up too much of Internet bandwidth. It you are on limited plan or on dial-up connection of Internet then you may wish to block Flash Intro's of websites. You can do it by disabling Flash Animations by setting a killbit for this ActiveX control:

(D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000)
Shockwave Flash objects
C:\WINDOWS\system32\macromed\flash\flash.ocx

Step 1. Open regedit and backup your registry first. Then navigate to the following location
(HKLM\SOFTWARE\microsoft\Internet Explorer\Active X compatibility)

Step 2. Create a sub key named (D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000)

Step 3. In the right pane, create a new REG-DWORD value (right click and it will give you option) named 'Compatibility Flags' and set the data for compatibility Flag to 40 (hexadecimal)

Step 4. Close regedit and reboot.

To undo the change, merge the REG file, which you have created, or simply delete the entry
(D27CDB6E-AE6D-1CF-96B8-444553540000) sub key under Active X Compatibility.

Another way is you can restore the registry from the backup you have created.

How to deal with 'I DON'T HATE FIREFOX BUT USE IE OR ELSE...'

Its not a common virus. I have seen only one machine infected with it so far. But its really funny how far some people go to trouble others.

Well its a virus. 'Win32.USB Worm' or a variant also know as 'W32/AHK Heap' or just 'Heat41a'.
Other than blocking Firefox, it also blocks access to Orkut and YouTube. It mainly spreads through removable drivers, and targets 'svchost.exe' and PowerPoint.

To remove this scan your computer with a good antivirus (I will recommend ESET, Kaspersky or Norton). If the antivirus is not able to remove it then we have to do it by a registry tweak.

First - As usuall backup your registry.

Second- Open TaskManager(Ctr+Alt+Del) and end 'svchose.exe' process running under your username.

Third - Open Run and type 'regedit'. It will open registry editor.

Fourth- Search for entry 'heap41' and delete all entries. (keep pressing F3 to go to next entry)

Fifth- Enable 'View hidden files'. Search for hidden folder 'heap41a' and delete it. You will find this folder in C:\heap41a (presuming you have windows installed in C drive)

Reboot.