Posted on 10/31/2004 9:11:53 PM PST by quidnunc
Salinas, Calif. — Though less than a year old, the PC took more than åfive minutes to start up and never shut down without stalling on error messages. Attempts to Web surf generated at least a half-dozen pop-up ads and — frequently — system freezes.
Internet Explorer's home page was hijacked. Attempts to reach some sites, including eBay — were redirected to random search engines that only called up more ads. Google search results were altered. And the modem, without permission, tried to dial distant lands in search of porn.
Welcome to the nasty world of a PC infected with adware, spyware, dialers and their ilk, all of it installed without the knowledge of its owner — my brother-in-law.
No sooner had he spent nearly $1,000 for the Dell Dimension 4600C than he lost control of it to advertisers and porn peddlers.
My brother-in-law, bless him, had committed the computing equivalent of running with sharp objects: Installing free software willy-nilly, clicking carelessly on misleading ads or spam and letting relatives (not this one) have free reign during visits.
But my job was not to judge. It was, rather, to make the violated system hum again. I agreed have a go at degunking it provided I could write about the experience. He agreed.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
We have been using Panda, and so far it's doing the job
real well. (Windows)
bump later
I had spyware destroy my notepad.exe. It's brutal.
Why the recommendation to run those scans in safe mode?
Spybot takes almost an hour, after a recent update it runs much slower.
Bump to read later
Me bookmark too.
Even if true, it's just not good security advice to give.
Your probably right but if you've already spent 5-$600 or more on a PC should you toss it and buy a Mac? for $1200.I wouldn't, If you have the time and patience to learn a new and completely alien OS then by all means get Linux.I have been using Microsoft products since DOS 5.0 and I don't store a lot of irreplacable data on my hard drive so security is not a big enough reason for me or alot of other people to start over again from scratch.Finally are there any good games available for these alternative OS's yet?
I use adaware, spysweeper, winpatrol, spyware doctor, zone alarm, secretmaker, etc., on this computer and a different combination on the other computer. I use Norton AntiVirus for the serious stuff on both computers. Of the two computers in the house - one for visiting grandchildren and one for us, only one is working. The new Dell is sitting useless in the other room and I'm at the granddaughter's desk on her 4 year old Gateway. Hard drives on both computers have been wiped clean and reinstalled within the past two months. I'm amazed people still use the internet... Your frustration is shared.
Will Linux os run windows applications?
You are right, it is nuts. We can and should use the anti spyware utilities. But the people who install this stuff should also go to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to jail. And stay there.
Off the spyware/virus issue, but I am sure Open Office has a linux version, and should handle presentations OK.
Also, an advantage to Firefox and many other 3rd party browsers is the ability to open tabs, VERY useful in FR browsing!
I probably shouldn't say this but there are still "hacked" supposedly spyware free versions of Kazaa and other P2P programs out there, I'm not recomending them just saying they exist.I think they're still an open door for viruses and assorted malware.
A + Bump.
Mandrake BUMP.
FireFox Bump.
It would if they were stand-alone Linux/Linux presentations. But they have to be run on Windows/MSOffice machines. While you can generate OO presentations under Linux that will run OK under MS/Office, there are differences.
I have Open Office and have tried doing this. I've found that there are slight mismatches in alignments and differences in object/page transitions when creating on one application and running under another. It's enough of a difference to create a problem with the types of slides I'm generating.
When I get the chance I'm planning on running some tests using CrossOver Office which will allow me to run MSOffice directly under Linux, thereby (hopefully) eliminating the hickups.
A "must read" at home!
I wondered if you were reading this!!
I understood that just fine. I guess you never change your own oil either...
System Restore defrag Bump.
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