I recently had a major infection that definitely didn’t come from a web site or an email attachment. I have two firewalls, three spyware scanners, and a virus scanner, but they don’t catch everything. One bad download can kill you. I had to follow the procedures that yojimbo linked to to clear everything. It took all day.
Shut. The fuck. Up.
why do you have to barge into every fucking spyware thread as if buying a Mac is the motherfuicking solution to all computer problems?
How about along with the suggestion of buying macs, you also suggest how much extra the hardware will cost, how much extra all the training for staff will cost, now much it’s going to cost to recreate propritary software to work on a mac.
Here’s a suggestion for you, stop being such a nose in the air Mac-cunt. Copy and paste that into a text file, print it off, and shove it up your box.
jsleek, have you considered… Er. Frozen Ice? It’s not Black Ice, that’s a firewall. Basically, locks the entire computer down and reboots as new each time. No, it’s not Frozen Ice. Er. Anyone remember the name? Something about Ice.
Had any luck getting rid of the crap yet, Bosda? Sometimes it helps to boot into safe mode before running the adware removal software, since this prevents most things from loading at startup…
Because it would take up a lot of system resources, make web browsing and emailing (two of the most common tasks) a lot more of an effort, and wouldn’t make the machine any more fundamentally secure. By contrast, using a decent browser in combination with a good firewall/AV setup is perfectly adequate, and makes the machine safe(r) for any user.
As a side note, I used to fight a near-constant battle with my old work PC, or more accurately with the night workers in our office who would come in and deliberately install the all-singing, all-dancing Animated Smiley Toolbar for Outlook so they could email each other hilarious messages with puking smileys, no doubt written in 32-point purple MS Comic Sans, oblivious to the fact that this came with endless shitty pop-ups for viagra and punch-drunk monkeys. You can make your machine as secure as you like, there’s no accounting for absolute morons.
If you even mention Vanilla Ice, we shall have serious words. :dubious:
Bosda…
The MajorGeeks guys are excellent and their site is really helpful.
At the point where they tell you to scan with all the spyware, look in Start>Programs> for new stuff like Search Assistant. Some actually come with an uninstall. (e.g. MyWebSearch). Uninstall any there. Also go to Control Panel and use Add/Remove Programs. Some can be removed there.
Make sure you have run msconfig to shut down any running crapware. Some will respawn. This should be your first step.
Good luck.
and castration and nut-kicking is way too good for these scumbags.
Unfortunately, my computer will not permit me to access the control panel.
Admins only. 
Bosda, I agree.
We should go back to the days of public flogging in the stocks for spammers and virus writers. The Comanches had some good ideas, too. Think “strip 'em naked, pour honey on their nuts and stake them out next to a fire ant bed that you then poke with a stick”, and other good fun.
A virus writer is less than a pimple on the collective ass of humanity…
We have Deep Freeze on all of our computers at school. It has been a life-saver.
Why aren’t they prosecuted? I can’t remember reading about any spyware people going to jail, which is a shame because they don’t seem to have a problem sending hackers, virus writers and spammers to jail
Because most of the really bad spyware is coming out of eastern Europe and the fromer Soviet republics. Kind of hard to haul them into court, especially since the Internet Police are busy cracking down on music sharing.
If that’s the case then how about getting I.T. to do it. If they’ve looked you out then it’s up to them to fix it.
I work in I.T. BTW.
locked you out :smack:
Dead Badger:
System Resources: check. But Basilisk has a fairly modest footprint. If I can run it effectively within VirtualPC (an emulator within an emulator) on my vintage-1998 500 MHz PowerBook, I suspect the owner of a modern PC would not have a problem with it.
More of an effort: check. But once you’ve got it launched, it’s not that big a deal to leave it running all day, with a Mac program fetching your email and with a browser open.
No security improvement: Say what? Are you saying I’m dead wrong about the main problem with PC malware/spyware is via browsers and email programs? Why would it not be more secure? An emulated Mac can’t catch a PC virus or get infested with PC spyware.
Look, I’m not in here shouting “Get a Mac, ha ha”. This is a way to use a Windows PC and not have these problems. (It need not be a Mac emulator. I spoke of these because they’re free. You could shell out for Microsoft’s VirtualPC and run a Linux distro and fetch email and do web-browsing from that environment with the same advantages.
I’m also not saying you can’t render a Windows PC free from viruses and spyware using antivirus and spybot tools and setting up a good firewall. But this board is frequented by PC users who are smarter than the average “where’s the Any key” user and judging from the rate that posts like the OPs turn up here, it’s sufficiently complicated that even relatively brilliant PC users get infected from time to time.
So I’m suggesting emulation as a “barrier protection method” that lets you keep using the platform of your choice (or your company’s choice) for everything else, and I think it’s a suggestion worthy of better than the rejection slip you’re trying to hand it.
Sorry, error.
And using the control panel did help! 
Yes, Deep Freeze it is. Wonderful tool. Deployed it a few years back.
Well, I didn’t say “no security improvement”, I said the machine itself is no more fundamentally secure, which I stand by. Modern PCs are multi-user machines, and if you’re not running a firewall, an AV program and preferably have removed easy access to IE and OE, your machine simply isn’t secure, even if you personally do access the web through a virtual machine. Not everyone who sits down is going to know or want to load up a virtual Mac, contend with an unknown interface and load unfamiliar programs just to check their mail. By contrast, Firefox can be configured to be pretty much identical to IE, and can replace it in the Windows UI, effectively removing the main avenue for spyware to get installed. If you’re using a virtual machine, all the original vulnerabilities are still there, just waiting to be used.
Sure, but I don’t think your method is any more failsafe than any of the others, while actually being a fair bit more complicated. It would have prevented Bosda’s problem, but so would using Opera/Firefox. And in Bosda’s case, it’s pretty likely that neither solution is an option, since IT won’t let him install things.
No no, I realise it’s a reasonable suggestion, and one that would probably have some effect, I just think it’s a very roundabout route to achieve something that really doesn’t take much effort by other means. I achieve pretty near perfect PC security with the following steps:
- Use Opera.
- Remove access to IE.
- Install AVG and Sygate.
That’s all it takes. I spend absolutely zero time per day worrying about security (although I’m helped by being behind a NAT router), and haven’t had a virus or piece of spyware in years. Basically, security is about getting into good habits. Your suggestion is another potential good habit, but it’s a bit clunky IMO, and no easier to teach to end users than proper browser/firewall use; quite the opposite in fact. Anyone savvy enough to configure and run a completely different OS on a virtual machine is probably more than okay dealing with the above steps.
Having said that, I’m well aware that virtual zones are a very promising technology for the future. MS for one are (I believe) intending to have IE 7 in Longhorn running in its own protected space, which is much the same as the principle you’re suggesting, but without requiring the expensive emulation layer. That’s the crux, really; using a virtual Mac incurs a definite penalty every time you use it, even though it might be minor. By contrast, you can set up your PC so you can be secure and not have to substantially alter your browsing habits, and I think that’s preferable.
“I am not bound to please thee with my answer.”
– Shylock, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1
I just find it amusing how you latched onto my post, while ignoring the ones by picunurse and others suggesting the same thing. Guess I can add you to my list of celebrity stalkers, eh?
I think it might be because a) picunurse is generally nice, b) picunurse apologised, and c) you are a twat who always pulls this shit despite having it repeatedly pointed out to you that it makes you look like a twat. This is just a suggestion, mind, and should not be construed as indicating that this is the only means by which you make yourself look like a twat.