Want to throw my computer

So it seems like all of a sudden today my computer got slammed with a bunch of viruses. So I went to get a new virus program but found that I can't get it installed cause there is a virus affecting the installer program, the auto run feature also doesn't work now, so instead of trying to fix it I'm just going to buy a new one. I have been using my phone for my internet access all day now at lay its faster than my computer was (the computer is like 5 years old anyway) any reason to get a new computer I guys. well thanks for letting me ramble a bit

-dan-

If you just use your computer for browsing, email,etc... consider loading something like ubuntu or linux mint. Faster and more secure.

Ever wanted to know what was inside? Now is your chance. All you need is a big screw driver and a hammer.

if you can reinstall the OS with full dis format you will be fine.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm typing this on a desktop computer that is at least 6 years old, but it still works (sometimes!). As we upgrade and replace our laptops, I let my 13-year old budding engineer "work on" the old ones. It's always interesting to find the various parts laying around his room.

And speaking of upgrades, still trying to figure out if I like the new/improved forum. Probably in a week I'll forget it changed at all. Thanks site developers and administrators for all your work. Aaron

That's rough man if you were closer I'd offer to help! Is it the one that pretends it's antivirus software that's been going around?

Try restarting in safe mode, then do nothing but open your antivirus and see if it works.

Most Pros will advise you to do a complete reformat at least every couple of years. As time goes on all computers get slower and slower for a variety of reasons and there isn't much you can do about it. A reformat fixes everything.

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Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

If you just use your computer for browsing, email,etc... consider loading something like ubuntu or linux mint. Faster and more secure.

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+1. Had a virus disable my up to date Norton anti virus program, disable the Windows restore feature. I got a program online, can't recall the name and wiped the hard drive completey. Lost everything but got rid of the virus. Loaded Linux Ubuntu and no problems for the past 5 or 6 years. Nice to get away from dependence on microsoft.

Yea it pretends its an anti virus, tried starting in safe mode but that didn't work, glad I have most of my stuff backed up on externals. Just a couple things I need to transfer when I get a new computer, just afraid to transfer the virus.

-dan-

If you have the ability to burn a cd. You can download Knoppix, then boot from it and scan you windows drives for viruses.

More info, I guess there are some other options other than Knoppix too.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/...indows-machine

I always wonder what it is that people do that they get all these virusses. I don't remember getting one in at least 5 years. And even then the virusscanner did it's job and picked it out before it could do harm.

First I'd have a look at what activities you do on your computer.

Do you play games a lot or run a lot of native windows programs for which you can't find any substitutes (if you've even looked. There is a VERY large open source community with LOADS of programs out there) then stick to windows....back up what you can, scan it very well and re-install the complete shebang.

Do you use wordprocessors, e-mail, internet, maybe some light photowork and/or audiowork.
Get a version of Linux, like Ubuntu, Linux Mint of one of the many other flavours. They're great, not at all difficult to come to grips with (the basics at least), work faster than most windows versions (at least on my PC no windows has ever run as fast as linux the time that I had it), are more secure and are completely free.

For your average PC user that doesn't do any hardcore work I highly recomment Linux over windows.

Usually I reinstall my OS once in a year, that's a good touch up for my comp. Plus I use a good antivirus. And everything goes smoothly.

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Most Pros will advise you to do a complete reformat at least every couple of years. As time goes on all computers get slower and slower for a variety of reasons and there isn't much you can do about it. A reformat fixes everything.

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Most people selling themselves as Pro.
An actual pro would tell you to not install crap in the first place, and regularly perform cleanup of old data, do a disk defragment, etc.
I never reinstall without a good reason. I also don't load a ton of crap on it either :)

Your suggestion is like demolishing a house after a couple of years because it's starting to need some light maintenance :)

I don't claim to be a pro but, I'm the only computer literate person in a house of 8 people and have 4 laptops to fix regularly mosty from crapware put onto them by my family who have no idea what they're doing - accompanied by useless toolbars with retarded search bars that couldn't find its own brain (because it doesn't have one) but they say it looks pretty so the computer dies and reformatting it saves some time and hassle going through and removing all the offending programs and registry entries.

But try Linux, Linux Mint runs pretty well and looks nice and sleek, if you are just doing basic tasks. You don't even need to install Linux you can run it straight from a CD; Here's the KNOPPIX download page mentioned earlier

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Originally Posted by Bruno

Most people selling themselves as Pro.
An actual pro would tell you to not install crap in the first place, and regularly perform cleanup of old data, do a disk defragment, etc.
I never reinstall without a good reason. I also don't load a ton of crap on it either :)

Your suggestion is like demolishing a house after a couple of years because it's starting to need some light maintenance :)

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One nice thing about windows 7 and vista is the automatic system state backups it does. I have saved people just buy walking them through restoring to a point before things blew up. Of course if they have some nasty malware, I usually prefer to just reload if possible. I am always paranoid I missed something cleaning it up.

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Most Pros will advise you to do a complete reformat at least every couple of years. As time goes on all computers get slower and slower for a variety of reasons and there isn't much you can do about it. A reformat fixes everything.

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Not quite everything: Every 3.5 years, it's a great idea to replace your HD. Over time, the low level formatting of a disk wears away. To my knowledge, reformatting your disk only replaces the high level formatting. The LLF outlines the sectors and such of a disk. Back in the day, when HDs cost several thousand dollars, they came with utilities to re-apply the LLF. These days, given the nearly disposable nature of a 500gb drive, you are just expected to replace them. There might be utilities out there you can download, but I have never bothered. 99% of the time, when someone's computer is running much more slowly then they remember, this is the case. With worn away sector lines, the hard drive finds things less efficiently.

Another HD suggestion: The absolute biggest performance boost I have ever seen was getting an Intel M-25 SSD. SSDs theoretically could last decades. there isn't anything mechanical in them. No low level formatting issues, no drive head issues. I was blown away when I first started installing them in various systems. I started buying WD VelociRaptors and was very unimpressed. I then replaced those with Intel SSDs and the boot time is like 13 seconds in Windows 7. Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator used to take a frustratingly long time starting up; Now it takes like 4 seconds!

There are two downsides to SSDs. One: The cost. The price per gigabyte is waaay more than a mechanical disk. I just purchased a 120gb for $280. You can probably find a mechanical 1TB disk for $60 somewhere. Two: in a one week time frame, I had two SSDs die on me. They were Crucial and OCZ brands. And when an SSD dies, goodbye data. I have been used to just popping a dying disk on my computer via a SATA to USB and patiently pulling the old needed data onto my computer (if it wasn't a big mechanical failure). No such luck with an SSD. They turn into a very expensive paperweight.

I kind of feel like I am rambling now. My brain hasn't warmed up quite yet. These opinions are based off of observations from being a computer nerd for like 15 years, and the office I work in has 15 workstations; 6 of which has been converted to Core i7, tri-channel DDR3, SSD beasts.

If you search the name of the virus there is almost always a forum describing how to remove it. My wife brings home a computer nearly once every month from different co workers. Sometimes you need a different computer to search but if you corrupt the virus it will let you work a bit. But it usually involves fixin the registry which can cause big problems if ya goof it up. Most virus reboot themselves if you dont get the reg entry.

Without knowing the root of the problem it is difficult to
give a good solution. There are some new viruses
but most of the old ones still cause problems.

Since the odds are that this problem is not "new"
tools like "stinger" can work wonders. Stinger
is free from McAfee.
How to Use Stinger | McAfee Free Tools
Download and run it and see if it helps. I keep a copy handy because it
is simple to use and cleans out many viruses that cripple virus protection tools.
It does get updated often so it pays to get a new copy from time to time.
A friend might burn a copy on a CDROM or DVD for you if your machine
is too messed up to help itself. Mostly do not use a USB memory stick if your
machine is 'infected'.

If you know the virus and and understand how to kill it by hand
having Ubuntu burned on a CDROM or DVD can be very effective.
Mixing the OS can let you clean up things that are very difficult
since some viruses lurk in a couple places and if you clean up
one place the other reinfects the place you just cleaned. Stinger
is good at cleaning these problems BTW.

Linux/Ubuntu makes it possible to back up important data when
a machine is messed up. A version of Linux called Knopix is used
by Maxtor backup recovery tools in their recovery CD.

Other anti-virus companies have tools that are equivalent to stinger
so if you own XYZ product call the folk at XYZ and ask for their equivalent
solution. A handfull of IT folk run different versions than their clients run.
A virus that gets by one vendor may not past another.

All systems can be hacked and infected so it pays
to stay current and vigilant.

For some issues it is getting very nasty out there. Some
folks are beginning to do their financials running
from read only media so financial information and pass words
do not get exposed to viruses and hackers.

I agree with going to Linux. It's the best anti-virus cure I've ever used; and better in other ways, too.

I agree with what the others have said. Mostly.
Linux is a great OS, and has many advantages.
Going with a Linux distro would also certainly take care of many security issues, including viruses.

I would, however, not recommend a Linux system for the novice computer user.
There is a learning curve on Linux, if it was all plug and play, this would have been the number one system out there.
After all, it is free and very stable/secure.

Now, I don't wanna see this turn in to a Flame war with the usual arguments thrown out from the different sides out there.
I just feel the OP should know that there are potential challenges in switching, very much depending on your level of computer skills.
Setting up repositories, handling TAR balls and all the other stuff you might run into is not terribly intuitive.

And this was said by someone raised on UNIX:)

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Originally Posted by Birnando

I agree with what the others have said. Mostly.
Linux is a great OS, and has many advantages.
Going with a Linux distro would also certainly take care of many security issues, including viruses.

I would, however, not recommend a Linux system for the novice computer user.
There is a learning curve on Linux, if it was all plug and play, this would have been the number one system out there.
After all, it is free and very stable/secure.

Now, I don't wanna see this turn in to a Flame war with the usual arguments thrown out from the different sides out there.
I just feel the OP should know that there are potential challenges in switching, very much depending on your level of computer skills.
Setting up repositories, handling TAR balls and all the other stuff you might run into is not terribly intuitive.

And this was said by someone raised on UNIX:)

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It really depends on what you want to do with your computer. Ubuntu and mint are pretty easy to use and pretty much plug and play. Ubuntu has the non-free repositories enabled by default, so you can find software pretty easily. They even have a nice "Software Center" GUI.

If you want to run windows programs on Linux, it can be done for some,but takes some work. PlayOnLinux makes it easier though(in the repositories).


Edit: Birnando, I thought for sure you would have thrown "buy a mac" in there somewhere :)

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Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

It really depends on what you want to do with your computer.

Edit: Birnando, I thought for sure you would have thrown "buy a mac" in there somewhere :)

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Exactly right, and that was indeed my point. It depends on a few factors:)
I think the Latest Ubuntu distro is good stuff!

Re: the Edit

Nah, I'm to old for that:)
I say let people use what works for them, and I will use what works best for me.
I've spent so much time on Windows, Mac, Linux and Unix that I know they all work:)

But I guess my Avatar is a bit of a give away...

Is it easy to learn Linux? Does it support all those progs, which are commonly used with Windows?

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Originally Posted by Zelenbakh

Is it easy to learn Linux? Does it support all those progs, which are commonly used with Windows?

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That really depends on your current computer-skills level.
It also depends on what work you wanna do on that system.
(I'm talking about e.g. Ubuntu's GUI here, not the underlying Linux system)

Basic surfing, email and photo-editing is no harder than on a Windows machine. You just need to learn the differences in the GUI.
If you want to do more advanced stuff, the plot thickens so to speak.

It gets more and more streamlined for every new distro, but there are still stuff that is a bit challenging for a novice computer user.
Finding and installing stuff that is not in the supplied repositories being just one example.

As for windows programs, theoretically yes. Practically for your average Joe, I would say no.
There's a ton and a half of similar free software though that can do pretty much the same.
The job is to find them, and possibly learn them.
And of course there is the file format issue. A file that is generated on a Windows PC might not be the easiest to continue working on in a different environment.

We do live in a Windows-centric world. Especially when it comes to the business side of things.

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Originally Posted by Zelenbakh

Is it easy to learn Linux? Does it support all those progs, which are commonly used with Windows?

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It is necessary to list the commonly used programs.

Any program from Microsoft will not run without serious attention.
One issue is that Microsoft license tools are absent on Linux
and programs that require validation may not run.

If we move away from "programs" and look at tasks the
view is richer. While Microsoft Word will not run OpenOffice
will. So those that want to write letters, books or papers have a
choice of tools to address the task of writing.

In the last couple years Microsoft has made available
compilers for no additional charge (download them).
Linux has had compilers from the beginning. Programmers
tend to like Linux more than Windows. The market
for Windows programs is larger. Clean well written
programs can compile and run on both.

A lot depends on what you know and what you need.

I run Windows on new hardware. When I upgrade
or replace a disk on older hardware I commonly load a version
of Linux. It seems to demand less of the hardware and
over time Windows gathers junk that slows it down.

My favorite laptop is ten years old. The current versions
of Windows are expensive, expect more memory and run
slow as an old three legged dog on it. Linux however runs
quickly and is very responsive on the same laptop.

Go with Windows 7, leave UAC on, read the prompts when they display, and use Microsoft Security Essentials as your A/V. I wouldn't be surprised if the infected computer was XP with IE6. :/

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Go with Windows 7, leave UAC on, read the prompts when they display, and use Microsoft Security Essentials as your A/V. I wouldn't be surprised if the infected computer was XP with IE6. :/

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Hmmm... I ran vista for a year and got so many viruses I was scanning every day. I've ran XP for 5 years - same install - and nothing, every so often I get an odd tracking cookie, super fast on my lappy as well(it was made for vista) with AVG and comodo firewall (and if your using Internet Explorer, you deserve what you get, even though these days its caught up with other competitors)

From personal experience, UAC isn't that useful and is replaced by a decent firewall which checks all applications run on the system and is less annoying than UAC - and XP seems fine without UAC.

LINUX OS
But if you want to put in a little time trying something different - not necessarily difficult - give Linux mint or Ubuntu a try (livecd it before installing) its stable, responsive and works more efficiently: but its less compatible with windows apps but does have alternatives for all of them. If you want to play games Linux has issues playing modern PC games. Once you get to grips with Linux there are so many distributions for your needs. If you want a speedy Distro there's Arch Linux and Slitaz which get you browsing in 8 seconds on some systems but require more know how when using them. Its very customizable

Windows is of course what you know and I would possibly advise to find a copy of TinyXP which is a stripped down version removing all unnecessary components which are either unused or vulnerabilities in XP. Windows OS's involves cleaning out old temp files and registry entries over time but with SATA drivers, XP is just as good and better than Vista and Windows 7 unless your really attached to them.

Here's a nice factsheet for you to peruse, its a very good page to see what the differences are

good luck with your decision and go for what you need and are happy with, Linux is good but not for everyone.

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Originally Posted by commiecat

Go with Windows 7, leave UAC on, read the prompts when they display, and use Microsoft Security Essentials as your A/V. I wouldn't be surprised if the infected computer was XP with IE6. :/

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Not everyone can do this. I work on my computer and those progs, which I use for work, are not supported by Windows7.

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Originally Posted by Zelenbakh

Not everyone can do this. I work on my computer and those progs, which I use for work, are not supported by Windows7.

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Well that's not entirely true. You have two options of which I'm not sure if you've tried yet; first, even as far back as XP they had "compatibility mode" built-in where you could run programs as if they were in earlier versions of Windows. Yes, this rarely worked (for me) but it's an option. The second, and more viable, option is to virtualize. If you have Windows 7 Professional (or higher) then you can install XP Mode without any additional licensing. You get a full version of XP SP3 that runs in a virtual environment so you can still install and run your work programs.

Of course, if the computer belongs to a company then this is probably their problem and not yours. :)

I have three computers, two of them I use for work and they have XP Professional SP3. I laptop comp I use for travelling. Windows 7 home basic installed there and this OS supports all my working progs exept 2. But these two are very important, it's very difficult to manage without them. I have not heard, that Win.7 Professional gives absolute support to XP Pro progs.
From the other side I'm not very much bothererd with viruses. Both computers have serious protection, they are in sound condition.

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I have not heard, that Win.7 Professional gives absolute support to XP Pro progs.

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Its not windows 7 Professional that needs to support the programs. Because you would effectively be running XP in Windows 7 and you run your programs in XP.

its like dual booting your comp but easier. When you install the XP compatibility mode into win 7 pro, it actually installs a version of XP as part of Windows 7, so when you run the XP compatibility mode you are actually running XP, as if switching on a laptop with XP as its OS.

Its a really clumsy way of doing it but, thats the way Microsoft do it. they couldn't create a software fix for compatibility mode so the only other way to do it was to actually run XP which gives guaranteed compatibility.

download it here