Whew! Back to normal after stupid mistake...

[chefduane]

So I came across some Christmas music that I wanted in mp4's. Downloaded (what I thought) was a safe mp4 converter and did the conversion. The music plays fine as saved mp4's but my system immediately began running slow as m-o-l-a-s-s-e-s, I mean s---l---o---w. I figured I got a virus or spyware or somesuch and went through ALL the antiviri and malware utilities in my quiver. Nothing helped. Had the issue for 2 days. Harumph. Finally within the last hour I did a System Restore to a week ago and all is well!! Whew!! Happy Happy!! Dumb mistake to use an unknown converter so I am appropriately chastened. I'm just glad all is back to normal. Lesson learned.

 

[Megahertz07]

Use windows.7.codec.pack.v4.1.8
windows.7.codec.pack.v4.1.9.setup.exe - Windows 7 Codec Pack Downloads | Software - Digital Digest

 

[Snick]

Hi chefduane,

Glad to hear your got lucky and Windows System Restore (wsr) worked for you. My experience with wsr has been, if I really needed it, it didn't work! Are you familiar with Virus Total? It's a cloud based scanner that you can upload files, folders, downloaded programs, up to 3 gb for scan by, (currently 60 AV engines). You can drag & drop files to their website/page or your can download and install their app (I have the latter), which adds an entry on the right-click context menu. I use it each and every time I download a program, or recommend a program to be downloaded by those I am assisting with computer issues.

I'm a proponent of backing up your computer. External hard drives are very inexpensive and great insurance, should, as you have just experienced, an unwanted system change occur. Personally, I use AOMEI backupper. It has a simple intuitive Graphical User Interface (gui), can perform incremental, differential & full backups, manually or automated, backup compression, etc.

The bad guys are relentless in their efforts to infect our electronic world!

 

[chefduane]

Use windows.7.codec.pack.v4.1.8
windows.7.codec.pack.v4.1.9.setup.exe - Windows 7 Codec Pack Downloads | Software - Digital Digest

I read the description but am confused. Will the codec allow one to pull the audio portion of a utoob video and save it locally as a mp4 audio file? That's what I was attempting to do.

 

[Megahertz07]

windows.7.codec.pack.v4.1.8 is to allow to play almost all audio or video on WMP.

I found this:
Open VLC player.
From the menu bar, please select "Media" and then "Convert/Save".
Click "Add" and select your file.
Click "Convert/Save".
You should then select "Audio - MP3", enter a name in the "Destination File" and then click "Start".

VLC is an excellent player like WMP
Official download of VLC media player, the best Open Source player - VideoLAN

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Hi chefduane,

Glad to hear your got lucky and Windows System Restore (wsr) worked for you. My experience with wsr has been, if I really needed it, it didn't work!...

That was my experience with System Restore in XP. I never could get it to work, period, on my Windows 7 machines so I just shut it off and depend exclusively on imaging.

...I'm a proponent of backing up your computer. External hard drives are very inexpensive and great insurance, should, as you have just experienced, an unwanted system change occur. Personally, I use AOMEI backupper. It has a simple intuitive Graphical User Interface (gui), can perform incremental, differential & full backups, manually or automated, backup compression, etc.

The bad guys are relentless in their efforts to infect our electronic world!

I'm also a proponent of backing up computers. I prefer using the paid version Macrium Reflect (v6) and recommend Macrium Reflect Free for most people (I can no longer recommend the paid version to people because of (not so)Cleverbridge, the flaky company Paramount Software uses to handle their billing and payments) for backing up the System files (OS and programs). Most people will find the free version to be more than adequate for their needs. Several people here also recommend AOMEI.

I recommend using a folder/file syncing program for backing up data. My weapon program of choice for that is FreeFileSync.

 

[Snick]

Took a look at Macrium Reflect Free. Since my last viewing a few years ago, the GUI has been simplified. That was one of my concerns for use by newbies. I would recommend that backup utility as well. Thanks for the info Lady Fitzgerald!

 

[RoWin7]

Hi chefduane,

...Are you familiar with Virus Total? It's a cloud based scanner that you can upload files, folders, downloaded programs, up to 3 gb for scan by, (currently 60 AV engines)....

How long do the 60 A-V's take to scan?