• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

computers: heads Up!

Share this page

SilentUnicorn

SilentUnicorn

Yoda
Country flag
Offline
All,
in the last three days i have had to deal with three different computers and 2 different viruses. One machine took it so bad i had to scape the drive and do a clean install, the other was at work and had sensitive and financial data on it. i saved that one....i think. and just this afternoon my own mothers computer got hit.

I only mention this because it seems to be a run on this kind of thing, around here anyway. Both attacks involved self installing software. One is some kind of registry cleaner and the other is antivirus program that hijacks your desktop and screen saver.

Beware!




mark
 
Working as an IT guy, I saw this all the time. Usually someone finds an offer for some software that will speed up the machine, or clean out the junk. Of course this software is free, so people will take advantage of it.

I have probably cleaned hundreds of PCs of these malware programs. Thanks for the heads up.
 
That's precisely the problem. People grab up free software like candy and install it, not knowing where it originated from or who may have altered it along the way. Even applications from well-known software companies can be full of malware if you download them from an unknown web site.

I always tell newbies to 1) never install anything they don't need, especially because it's free and 2) never install anything they don't need, especially because it's free.
 
Mark - could you maybe give us the names of the problem programs? the "registry cleaner" and the "antivirus" programs that caused the damage?

Thanks.
Tom
 
Format c:/u
OR a nice little utility I have that will rewrite the entire drive with 0`s as may times as you tell it to do so.{among other things such as replace the MBR, find and repair bad sectors {not just exclude them from being used} ECT. ECT.
I can do it with my eyes closed!


Being a frequent victim of these malware and spyware programs many of my friends computers have required my assistance over the years. {not that I`m any kind of computer guru mind ya} Despite repeated emphasized warnings against downloading "Free Software" Yet they still insist.
Some people just don`t learn!
 
NutmegCT said:
Mark - could you maybe give us the names of the problem programs? the "registry cleaner" and the "antivirus" programs that caused the damage?

Thanks.
Tom
Click to expand...

Yes, the anti virus one is called XP antivirus 2008 see
here

as for the registry cleaner one i dont recall the specifics, it is/was on my mothers computer and that is my fathers domain. I am sure i will hear all about it in the morning.

Aweman, what is the utility you use?


mark
 
Back
Top