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On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 4:36 PM, Jimmy Breck-McKye <jb527 -at- hotmail -dot- co -dot- uk>wrote:
> I'd just boot a LiveCD / LiveUSB of some lightweight Linux distro (like
> Puppy), use it to pull necessary files onto other media, then just
> reinstall. Reinstalling an OS every nine months or so is good practice
> anyway, because systems inevitably degrade after several iterations of
> third party software mess up libraries and dependencies anyway. Most
> people are frightened of reinstallation, but it's a lot more trivial
> than they think.
>
> Scan those files on some other partition with an up-to-date scanner. Or,
> use something like ClamAV from the Linux disc if you *really* can't
> bring yourself to do a clean install.
>
> On 06/08/10 20:48, Ken Poshedly wrote:
> > My 15-year-old daughter is _almost_ perfectly responsible with her 2- or
> > 3-year-old Toshiba Satellite laptop (with Vista). Her maturity level is
> > more like 18 or 19 years old (in a good, well-grounded way). But she
> > occasionally does still have those "teenager knows everything" moments
> and now,
> > it's caught up with her.
> >
> > I recall how she was always too busy with the laptop and it was a real
> uphill
> > battle getting her to let me install antivirus protection (AVG Free) and
> Spotbot
> > Search& Destroy on her terminal, but at least it was done. But then she
> never
> > updated them with new virus or antispam definitions, etc. Instead, I did
> when I
> > could get access to the laptop.
> >
> > Then AVG stopped offering updates for her version of the "free" product,
> so
> > that's as far as that went. The result: expired (i.e., little or no)
> protection
> > for who-knows-how-long.
> >
> > But earlier this past week, her terminal wound up with the nasty pop-up
> that
> > announces that the terminal is infected and to click on the onscreen box
> to
> > upgrade to some unknown bogus antivirus program (not Norton, not AVG, not
> > anything I've ever seen mentioned anywhere).
> >
> > And cancelling out of the warning window doesn't mean the end of things.
> > Instead, every program she tries -- no matter what it is -- results in
> the
> > onscreen window notifying her that this file (or that file or the other
> file, no
> > matter what) is infected and she should purchase this "unknown" antivirus
> > program.
> >
> > Can't run Spybot, or download even a new AVG -- can't do nuthin'.
> >
> > My good friend Tim (who is also a member of this list) advises me that if
> I can
> > somehow come up with a bootable Vista CD, I should be able to use it to
> get up
> > and running and then run AVG from a thumb-drive (data-stick, whatever you
> call
> > it). (My own desktop Windows XP computer is well-protected, so I can
> prepare the
> > thumb-drive that way.)
> >
> > But at my office, the IT guy tells me that my plan won't work. And
> another guy
> > says the best thing to do is remove the hard drive from the Toshiba
> laptop and
> > cable it directly to my desktop and then run my own scanning software on
> it as
> > it will be recognized as another drive.
> >
> > All of this is logical, but now I don 't know which way to turn. Is Tim
> correct?
> > Or it my company's IT guy correct? Or is the last guy correct? School
> starts
> > here in Gwinnett County (near Atlanta) next Monday, so getting this done
> in the
> > next day or so is the plan.
> >
> > -- Ken in metro Atlanta
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