There are a couple.
- Some may actually want to help support a site by not blocking the serving of ads.
- Some may not want to use a [del]mainstream[/del] targeted browser.
Also, mentioned in a recent thread on this topic, some are surfing from work where they are not permitted to change browsers or install extensions.
As per Norton, I get hit on this site almost every time I’m here. I don’t know how to give you further information. I can get screen shots of the viruses that have been blocked but how do I post them to y’all?
Earlier this month, when I didn’t have Norton, I lost my system. I had some Vista Security blah-blah virus that locked me up completely. Couldn’t get online even in safe mode. I had to take it and get it un-virused…cost me $125. Promised myself that I would stay off the SDMB…but I can’t!!! Obsessive lurker.
If you’ll let me know via PM how to show you the viruses that I have encountered, I’d be happy to give you screen shots.
I believe you can run Microsoft Paint, minimize it, and press CONTROL PRINT SCREEN and the screen as a JPG, but it ain’t working now on my laptop.
Ah, then you must paste the screen print to Paint. 
Got 2 Malware messages from here today, but avast nabbed 'em both…
Wait a minute…What’s wrong with surfing with your administrative account? I never bother to use anything else and didn’t know it could make any difference. In fact, I’m not even sure how to switch from one account to another, and actually I probably don’t have any other account.
A virus can install itself without warning through the admin account.
If you’re under a regular user account, you get a pop up warning for any program attempting changes or trying to install itself.
And from a limited user account, the virus cannot write to other accounts. The Administrator account will be unaffected and you can hopefully remove the virus from it.
I very recently suffered a virus and had to resort to a system restore to get rid of it. Clicking anything .exe would take me to this stupid anti-virus ad, very annoying. I wonder if I got it from you bastards on the 'dope?
Well no hard feelings. I have since installed Avast and am surfing in Chrome instead of IE or Firefox. So far so good.
Yesterday I was surfing using Chrome, from non-admin account, with all anti-virals up to date and operating, and got hit by some sort of killer virus that took over my system.
The main antiviral sent out a total of 3 notices that it was dealing with critical viruses successfully, then suddenly it went down. I can’t boot to safe mode, and had to manually cut off access to the internet. Any startup attempts merely have my system sending distress messages about hard drive dysfunction. <sigh>
So I’m taking it to the computer guy tomorrow to see what can be salvaged. I’d been planning on upgrading my system soon anyway, but was hoping for a more orderly transition.
If the hard drive can’t be saved I’ll lose a few christmas photos that I’d just downloaded and hadn’t backed up yet, but otherwise my important files are pretty up to date on my external hard drive, thankfully.
I’m not pointing my finger at SDMB at all. I’m just lamenting.
Just as an anecdote, On my Windows 7 laptop I got nailed by one of those Windows Security Viruses (stupid stupid stupid - I knew I should not have clicked on that) and fixed my computer by doing a System Restore. I was quite frankly surprised that it worked, but the System restore on Windows 7 seems to be much better than the XP version. Just a pointer for those hit by malware on Windows 7 as a possible solution.
None of this has to do with SDMB as I have never gotten any virus from here. Of course, I am a member and running AdBlock and NoScript.
Wow. I need to do a system backup, like right now.
I didn’t realize the malware issue here was this bad.
I’m not saying I got it here.
In fact, using my wife’s machine, & using a link via gmail, I visited a travel site we were using to consider a future vacation. We’ve used it for over a year to research stuff. It was about the last site I visited before my machine crashed.
Gmail prevented me from opening it on my wife’s computer, saying it had a known virus on it. :eek:
So I suspect that site as the cause of my most recent woes.
Does anyone know if a virus can keep a computer from booting or from displaying anything on the monitor? A couple of days ago my laptop screen went light blue and froze, and now when I power up the drive activates but the screen stays dark.
Email screenshots to tubadiva at aol dot com. Failing that, if you can at least tell us what malware your antivirus software told you it blocked (e.g., foobar.exe), this would be helpful. Feel free to post such info here.
It’s theoretically possible for a virus to do something to the BIOS, but it’s not very likely. It would have to be a very machine specific virus, which most viruses aren’t.
The BIOS is a mini operating system of sorts that is built onto the motherboard. It’s smart enough to do some basic startup and resource allocation type things, then it searches your disk drives (and/or the network) for a real operating system to boot. Even if your windows install is totally hosed by a virus, the BIOS will still start up and run. You should see whatever splash screen is displayed on startup - basically everything before you see the first windows loading screen.
Sounds to me like a hardware failure, not a virus.
Good info, thanks. I thought the problem was probably a hardware issue, but coming just a week or so after I had to reinstall everything I thought (and hoped :p) that maybe the problem was a virus of some sort. Anyway, thanks again, I appreciate the detailed explanation.