SirKenin
Posts: 2994
Joined: 10/31/2004
From: Barrie, ON Canada
Status: offline
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As a small business owner/technician/VAR I run across some really difficult assignments. Yesterday I came across the most difficult job I have seen in the last couple of years. The client had an unprotected XP Home computer with SP1 using IE. The thing was chock full of virii and spyware, the likes of which I have never seen in all 18 years of working on computers. The tools I had had a hell of a time eradicating them all, and in some cases could not get rid of them at all. I had to go into the recovery console and manually delete some of them. I had one that attached itself to the shell and reinstall itself the second you deleted it. It's companion would reinstall itself and restart the second you shut the process down and delete it. It would then rename itself and readd itself to the registry. Finally it would install spyware on the computer.
The whole thing was a nightmare. I am telling you this for one simple reason.. Protect Y/yourself. Here is how:
1) Install XP Service Pack 2
2) Install all the latest updates
3) Install Microsoft Antispyware Beta with the autoprotect and autoupdate features enabled.
4) Install Spybot Seek and Destroy with Teatimer and SDHelper enabled.
That's really all Y/you need. Having Ad-Aware Personal Edition is nice to have as a backup, but it is not really needed. Also, make sure Y/you do regular scans at http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ to check for any virii.
Do not open any attachments to emails or instant messages that the sender did not explicitly say they were sending to Y/you. If Y/you do not recognize the file, do not open it. Delete the email immediately. Avoid any software that jumps out at Y/you saying that it is free free FREE. Avoid free screensavers. Any free software that you see on banner advertisements avoid it like the plague. Anything that says it is 100% free almost never is unless Y/you are into open source software. There are exceptions to this rule, of course, but rather than outline every exception it is safer to say if Y/you do not know, stay away from it. ESPECIALLY KAZAA.
I can define it further if Y/you want. If Y/you have any further questions do not hesitate to ask them in this thread and I can help Y/you decipher the good from the junk.
Keep Y/your computers clean and avoid paying people like Me big bucks to clean them up. 
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Hi. I don't care. Thanks.
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