The most recent act of frustration came from a virus placed on our computer when a child "accidentally" downloaded a program (three accidental programs to my count). I was smart enough to suspect when an XP window continually popped up telling me I had a virus and that I should download spy ware by clicking OK. Not to be fooled I ran my Norton Anti Virus - nothing found. I then downloaded a free Yahoo Spy ware application which found spy ware and a Trojan virus (how much did I pay for Norton again?). I rebooted and the virus pop up was still annoying me. Here are my steps I followed:
- Backed up everything! (too many crashes have caught this girl off guard)
- I deleted/removed the suspect programs. Rebooted - still the pop up teased me.
- I then called in my husband to watch me as I hit the "OK" button to see what would happen
- An instruction to run, or save program (once again burned too many times) so I clicked "save" to a disk. Up pops Norton saying a virus has been blocked. Great!
- Supportive husband remembers an article he TRIED to get me to read when this first started. I follow the instructions from The Houston Chronicle http://blogs.chron.com/helpline/archives/2008/05/fake_antispywar.html
- Following these instructions brings up a nostalgic DOS looking box. I run everything as instructed including the restore
- I reboot my computer (this is now day 3 of the crisis) and.............it won't reboot!!!!!! Nothing but a blue screen. AAAARRrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhh!
- Another 2 days pass and I decide in a calmer moment to reboot in Safe Mode and try again - this time without following the "optional" restore feature and...............it worked!
- My desktop picture is gone, my parental controls were gone, my default Internet explorer was changed, and after all that was changed back to my settings I noticed my computer is now running faster than ever. Wonder how long I've had the virus?
1 comment:
It is interesting the Microsoft Operating system is so fule of holes that almost computer hacker can creat a virus. According to the official records, over the past 10 years, the PC operating systems have experienced over 150,00 virus'. I have had a Apple Macintosh computer since 1985 and not experienced ONE virus. Why not, because Apple has designed an Operating System that is almost impossible to break into. So if you are considering a better faster computer without having to worry about viruses, buy a Mac. Go to www.apple.com and see for your self. Have a great Day. Ron Coryell long time friend John & Pat Sherrill.
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