Friday, October 12, 2007
Please Folks, Practice Safe Computing!
I spent about six hours fixing a friend's computer that had been infected with a computer virus "contracted" from a questionable web site. First I ran every virus checker program I could find. Eventually the virus was found and removed. However, the virus had caused damaged to operating system, Windows XP of course, causing many functions such as "properties" to not work and it disabled the Control Panel, all in an effort to keep someone like me from removing the virus. So once the virus was gone, I tried re-installing the OS and that still didn't work. Finally, I brought the computer to my house and ran a few more programs that might fix the damaged files, most likely in the registry. I believe it was Spybot Search and Destroy that did the trick. After downloading the latest updates and running it, all problems were fixed! The computer ran fast and with no problems. I don't ask money from friends when fixing their computers, so my payment for this effort will add up to two burritos and a few slices of pizza. I have said before, there is lots of money to be made in the computer repair business, as $50/hour is the going rate, I believe. However, I'd rather have the free time than a few extra bucks. I value my free time away from work, where I spend the whole day working on computers.
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4 comments:
Man and I thought I was bad!! Guess I have the right virus protection from all of those porn sites that I search!
He was running an antivirus program, but it didn't stop the virus. Since I never figured out what the virus was it made it harder to fix. Last time his computer had a virus, I fixed it with a specific program called CWShredder. I installed the same antivirus program on his computer that I had you install on yours - Symantec AntiVirus. It is just a basic antivirus that protects your computer by scanning e-mail and files. I don't like the big, bulky all-in-one security programs like McAfee Security. They slow your computer down, add extra toolbars and icons everywhere, and still don't stop everything bad. However, I do have hardware and software firewall. Zonealarm (free version) is a great software firewall program.
One more comment. While trying to figure out how to repair a damaged Win XP install, I "accidentally" re-installed Win XP on my comptuer. After doing that, my computer kept freezing up every time it tried to acess "My Computer". I finally fixed the problem last night, thanks to Google searches that reveiled how other people fixed similar problems on their computers. I uninstalled and re-installed my HP Officejet 7310 software.
Keith,
how can I install Zonealarm (free version) on my computer? I think I should have that as well.
Mark
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