Spyware, Virus, Problems - Reflection

I recently cleaned, recovered, fixed, saved another ailing PC for someone in my community. The woman and her husband were at their wits end.  They couldn't but so much connect to the Internet without dozens and dozens of pop-ups coming on screen, grinding their machine to a halt making it completely unusable.  I had them drop the PC off on a Friday and she came to pick it up on the Monday morning.  All cleaned up and ready to go.  We had a brief discussion about options to make her internet usage safer.  Of course anti-spware, anti-virus, firewalls, and other such things came up in conversation.  Then she mentioned to me that she might actually just get a new PC.  Would that help?  "Sure,"I said. "If it was a Mac.  Otherwise, you'll basically be back in the same boat."

We chatted till about 10:30am - then she left.  At noon I got a phone call from her.  While reading her email the machine had become infected again and now a nasty program called Ad-Destroyers (which doesn't destroy any ads, but rather downloads them and displays relentlessly on your screen) was 80% done download. 

The battle wages on.

This experience of course is not unique.  I just read an excellent article that gives a similar scenario. The authors significant other had just gotten her DSL high speed connection up and running and it...

...worked great. For about four minutes.

Then, something happened. Something attacked. Something swarmed her computer the instant she tried to move around online and the computer slowed and bogged and cluttered and crashed, and multiple restarts and debuggings and what-the-hells only brought up only a flood of nightmarish pop-up windows and terrifying error messages and massive system slowdowns and all manner of inexplicable claims of infestation of this worm and that Trojan horse...

Sounds familar right?  What I liked about the author's article was his absolutely bang on question.

And what was that question?

Why the hell do people put up with this? Why is there not some massive revolt, some huge insurrection against Microsoft?

I often ask myself that as well.  He gives a great example of how we wouldn't tolerate it if buying a new automobile gave us a similar experience.  If any other product we would buy behaved as Windows does, how long do you think people would accept using it? 

And that leds us to the byline in his article when he asks, "Why Isn't Everyone on a Mac?"  Its an excellent question that I think in the months and years to come will begin to tip the balance away from Microsoft.

To read the entire article by Mark Morford, click here.

Comments

[bub]

Im assuming she is using Outlook Depressed , Michaal.She needs to get a good download email scanner anti virus proggy(AVG is good and free) or change her email program, Ive been experimenting with Calypso and apart from the British terms(received mail instead of inbox) Im impressed.There was also a program called mailwahsre that was free, and you could read your mail on the serever, and delete it there without it ever getting to your computer.Now for those of you using Outlook or outlook express I always recommend the following: -Start>Settings>Folder Options
-Click the File Types tab
-Scroll down to the entry for "VBScript File", highlight it and click the
button labeled "Edit"
-In the box that comes up next, about 1/2 way down you'll see a field called
"Actions" and listed there are "Edit", "Open", "Print", and "Open with MSDOS
Prompt". Click to highlight "Edit" and then click the button below that
says "Set Default". "Edit" will now be the default action, and will be what
happens when you double click a .vbs file in the future (it will open in
Notepad instead of running).
-Click OK, then OK again

This will in no way affect the normal operaion of your computer, just
changes how .vbs files are handled when you double click them.

cheers

[bub]

Also a quick method is to go to safe mode, unistall Virtual Bouncer from
Add/Remove Programs, run AdAware, and then go to
your "Internet Options" for IE. Clear out your Temporary
Internet Files, delete all your cookies, delete your
downloaded program files.
People make sure when you get a pop up that states do you want to download this yes or no, the yes and the no are the same button..and sometimes the X at the top is a yes too.The only safe way is to ctrl-alt-del and close the window.Since IE and Outlook share the same security settings basically they are one in the same.Try Firefox, your popups will be very much reduced.(or disable java script but this will make your functionality less.)If you insist on suing IE, download free pop up stopper from www.panicware.com.

[bub]

and a quick note..disable preview pane in Outlook!!! sorry bout the typos its late Im tired and its bed time .