Howdy!
A number of people have shown interest in ORT (The OaksLabs Removal Tool, www.oakslabs.com), so this thread is for suggesting fixes, features, and troubleshooting issues you may have with ORT.
I have titled this thread the "Sea Turtle Thread" because it is a name that is non-technical, so when a forum search is done it can be found quickly. It is my hope that this thread will serve as a technical reference and a sounding board for improvements and features for ORT.
About ORT:
I designed ORT to be a stand alone program -- no internet connection required. It also has no external dependencies (.NET, Windows Installer, etc...). This means that it uses a lot of native Windows command line programs (like "sc" for services). Thus, only Windows versions post Windows XP work.
ORT is designed to clear the way for other anti-malware scanners. It is not a replacement for a full anti-malware scanner. ORT is designed to get a PC on the network and ready for scanning, along with a "quick and dirty" (non-registry) malware removal.
Removal Information:
ORT takes no prisoners. It kills (ruthlessly). I have a warning message that it is a powerful tool each time it runs because of this. Malware doesn't play around, and neither does ORT. It's hard to keep up with malware, so ORT uses a "skunk test" with certain things, and in some cases does delete innocent files (in the startup folder, scheduled tasks, etc...). Most items in these folder are not critical, and compared to the damage malware does to a system, and loosing a custom maintenance scheduled task is relatively minor.
ORT cleans out temp files. This makes any subsequent malware scans faster, and deletes any traces of malware installers (and some malware that exists purely in temp folders).
Issues:
ORT looks like malware. Because of this, firewalls, routers, and anti-virus programs like to "eat" ORT. It can be quite difficult to download ORT because of this. As a fix, download ORT from the Tor Browser (https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en).
EDIT: As of 9/12/17, ORT uses a different compiling method, and this should no longer be an issue. ORT is also re-compiled and uploaded every hour.
Other notes:
I host all the servers (web, e-mail, etc...) for ORT. Because of this, power outages and other events may disrupt services. I'll do my best to get the word out if services are offline.
EDIT: Hosting has been moved to the cloud gradually over the last few months. As of September 2017 all critical functions are in the cloud.
ORT is designed to be resistant to malware attacks. I take care to keep sensitive details of ORT's operation private so that malware writers won't be able to target ORT (like some malware targets Combofix).
A number of people have shown interest in ORT (The OaksLabs Removal Tool, www.oakslabs.com), so this thread is for suggesting fixes, features, and troubleshooting issues you may have with ORT.
I have titled this thread the "Sea Turtle Thread" because it is a name that is non-technical, so when a forum search is done it can be found quickly. It is my hope that this thread will serve as a technical reference and a sounding board for improvements and features for ORT.
About ORT:
I designed ORT to be a stand alone program -- no internet connection required. It also has no external dependencies (.NET, Windows Installer, etc...). This means that it uses a lot of native Windows command line programs (like "sc" for services). Thus, only Windows versions post Windows XP work.
ORT is designed to clear the way for other anti-malware scanners. It is not a replacement for a full anti-malware scanner. ORT is designed to get a PC on the network and ready for scanning, along with a "quick and dirty" (non-registry) malware removal.
Removal Information:
ORT takes no prisoners. It kills (ruthlessly). I have a warning message that it is a powerful tool each time it runs because of this. Malware doesn't play around, and neither does ORT. It's hard to keep up with malware, so ORT uses a "skunk test" with certain things, and in some cases does delete innocent files (in the startup folder, scheduled tasks, etc...). Most items in these folder are not critical, and compared to the damage malware does to a system, and loosing a custom maintenance scheduled task is relatively minor.
ORT cleans out temp files. This makes any subsequent malware scans faster, and deletes any traces of malware installers (and some malware that exists purely in temp folders).
Issues:
EDIT: As of 9/12/17, ORT uses a different compiling method, and this should no longer be an issue. ORT is also re-compiled and uploaded every hour.
Other notes:
I
EDIT: Hosting has been moved to the cloud gradually over the last few months. As of September 2017 all critical functions are in the cloud.
ORT is designed to be resistant to malware attacks. I take care to keep sensitive details of ORT's operation private so that malware writers won't be able to target ORT (like some malware targets Combofix).
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