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The Dean

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Everything posted by The Dean

  1. Right price? Roll of tape? King Size Snickers? Byron has some value as a #2, but not for the Bills.
  2. FYI, your link is no good (directs back to this forum). But you knew this thread was already here, as you posted in it. :lol:
  3. Spybot Search and Destroy and Adaware were once terrific products. They are outdated now, and aren't worth installing, IMO. On the other hand, Stopzilla is a borderline rogue program. It has avoided the "rogue security product" label, so far, but it is considered a program to avoid, by most security specialists. If you are happy with it, so be it. But it isn't a program I would let anywhere near my, or my clients', computers.
  4. Excellent point, Cincy. I should actually do this, as I have to do multiple reinstalls. You may want to go the traditional route. But if you want to see what it entails, here you go: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/How-To--S...XP-installation
  5. Then he would be... http://www.last.fm/music/Van+Morrison/_/Qu...+The+Slipstream
  6. Actually, I was thinking just the opposite. Aren't there enough of those kind of people on the streets?
  7. Glad to see you are back among the living. The last post you managed to fire off, before going AWOL, had me worried. You must have been heavily medicated.
  8. Me too. This can't be a good thing, in the long run.
  9. Do you understand "intentionality"? Do you think Kennedy and OJ situations are comparable? Have you ever driven under the influence? I know many here have. One in particular, who loves to attack Ted for his Chappaquiddick incident, has several alcohol-related problems himself. So, are you (or the poster to remain nameless) really just a killer, who got lucky by managing to avoid a fatal accident? Yes, I understand people make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes have grave consequences. I still pay respect to those people when they die, particularly when they have given as much to country as Teddy has.
  10. That's some funny s#it. I love pipes. I stopped smoking them on a regular basis (well for tobacco, anyway), but a pipe is a very good thing, IMO. I'd have to procure something plaid, though.
  11. Dunno. Perhaps. I am fairly certain there is no evidence that he "murdered" anyone, though.
  12. Haven't had one of those is quite a while. At least you are getting the wood tips (is it beechwood?).
  13. If you are connected to Microsoft's site when updating, you should be fine. Make sure your firewall is in place, and install a good AV before starting the updates. If this is a reinstall, don't put the data back on the machine until you bring your system up to date (or at least relatively up to date).
  14. Don't see how you can be confused with Sage's post. While certainly a flawed human, Ted was a terrific Senator and a man devoted to public service. RIP, Ted.
  15. My three favorites are Nod32, Avira and Avast. Avira and Avast have excellent free versions available. Avira doesn't have the fastest scanner, but it runs very light on the machine. Avira is my favorite of the three.
  16. Noadware has a very bad history, and I would remove it ASAP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoAdware It is no longer considered a rogue security program, but it will always be suspect to me. Besides, there are far better products to use.
  17. Fez, I respect your credentials and opinion, but you are living in a different world from most of the clients I see and I suspect, most users here. I understand that, for some infections, best practice is to reinstall. Of course, had the user worked in a sandbox or at least with a limited privilege account, they may have avoided the infection to begin with. Had they backed up their files, reinstall wouldn't be as objectionable to them. These people are so far from "best practices" they usually laugh out loud (or cry) at the suggestion they reinstall, instead of clean. Moving on, though, I think you should note that the article you forwarded is three years old. As I suggested earlier, cleaning has progressed in the past couple of years, IMO. Rootkits, for example, while relatively hard to detect and clean, aren't quite as invincible as they once were. Still, in most cases where a rootkit is suspected, I advise reinstallation. But the thing that bothers me most about your universal advice to reinstall and reformat, is your failure to give any parameters to that approach. Would you reinstall for anything a good AV or anti-malware program detects on a machine? An unexplained/unwanted toolbar (such as Ask, or from coupon.com)? Low level adware or spyware (something like the defunct Zango)? A dialer? Some infections are relatively minor, very well known and not that difficult to remove. Is every tiny bit of that infection removed? Well, that's a question that applies to the removal of any program on a PC. Typically, programs leave bits in the registry, but that are unable to run once important components have been removed. Might there be other infections that went undetected? Perhaps. Of course, you should be able to get a good idea of how extensive the infection is when you examine the machine. If it has been hit by a malware bomb, my first advice is to reinstall. But what if it looks to be a small/limited infection? There might be things we don't see, of course there might be unseen things on any computer that isn't acting up. Should we simply reinstall all the computers on a regular basis in case something is hidden and lying in wait? When someone cleans a computer (or has it cleaned), they should backup the files (and also scan them for infections) and institute a backup regimen. I also use Mozy and find it pretty good. (Although recovering programs is always questionable, IMO.) I also try to get them to find a place for all their computer-related discs, manuals, etc. So, a client who opts for a cleaning now starts practicing the kind of behavior that will allow them to reinstall later on, if it ever comes to that. It isn't as if the cleaning somehow interferes with the reinstall, should that become necessary. And for the record, while most infections live in the system files, these have become an issue: http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/...1312627,00.html I have found these fake .mp3 files on external drives (I think some people download straight to the drive). Their payload impacts the system files, but they are ready to strike when they are activated from the external drive. EDIT: Here's a quick article from someone who prefers to reinstall, but understands the need to clean, in some cases. It's obvious to me he works with individuals, and not simply company regulated computers: http://www.bakersfieldcomputer.com/2009/05...ected-by-virus/
  18. Had you done something else instead, you still wouldn't get the two minutes back.
  19. The ones staring Cartman's mom are the best.
  20. That's a good policy, I think. And you have to have different standards for a company than for an individual user. For many people, a reinstall is a nightmare. They don't necessarily have the ability to reinstall all the programs they use, or have proprietary (or simply old and odd) programs, some with many tweaks done by someone else. People can become pretty attached to the their computers, and the way they have them configured. I take a very personal, individual approach, with each client and explain the pros and cons of different solutions.
  21. I think it my have just sunk in with Marshawn that this is NOT a good idea. Of course, it's better than going out drinking, I suppose. EDIT: Well, if Lynch was having second thoughts, he seems to have overcome them.
  22. I have cleaned, perhaps 100 or more computers, and have yet to have a machine be taken over by the same infection. (Of course, I follow up and make sure any remaining bits are cleaned before they become problematic.) I have also found infections on several external hard drives. They are usually in fake .mp3 or MPEG files which have been backed up the external drive. Of course, depending on your definition of malware, computers are regularly shipped already infected. This included brand new machines from Dell, HP, etc, I have also performed reinstalls (from the restore section of the hard drive) and the AV and anti-malware programs have found infections before anything else was installed. (These infections are typically Adware-related.) As for the speed you can reinstall a system, you are a much better man than me, Gunga Din. I did a reinstall/reformat on my laptop a month or two ago (not malware related), and I STILL don't have it completely tweaked to my liking, the way it was before I reformatted.
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