RE: anti-virus removal question

["Ed" <hamonwry12 -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

Frankly, even if you tried all of those steps, you'd never know for sure if
all traces of the virus or "antivirus" software are gone. I'd back up the
data, format the drive, and start from scratch. Not a bad thing to do on a
2-3 year old machine, anyway. It'll probably take less time than the other
options, too.

Hope this helps,
-=Ed.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+hamonwry12=hotmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+hamonwry12=hotmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf
> Of Ken Poshedly
> Sent: Friday, August 06, 2010 3:48 PM
> To: Techwr-l
> Subject: anti-virus removal question
> 
> My 15-year-old daughter is _almost_ perfectly responsible with her 2- or
> 3-year-old Toshiba Satellite laptop (with Vista). Her maturity level is
> more like 18 or 19 years old (in a good, well-grounded way). But she
> occasionally does still have those "teenager knows everything" moments and
> now,
> it's caught up with her.
> 
> I recall how she was always too busy with the laptop and it was a real
uphill
> battle getting her to let me install antivirus protection (AVG Free) and
> Spotbot
> Search & Destroy on her terminal, but at least it was done. But then she
never
> updated them with new virus or antispam definitions, etc. Instead, I did
when
> I
> could get access to the laptop.
> 
> Then AVG stopped offering updates for her version of the "free" product,
so
> that's as far as that went. The result: expired (i.e., little or no)
> protection
> for who-knows-how-long.
> 
> But earlier this past week, her terminal wound up with the nasty pop-up
that
> announces that the terminal is infected and to click on the onscreen box
to
> upgrade to some unknown bogus antivirus program (not Norton, not AVG, not
> anything I've ever seen mentioned anywhere).
> 
> And cancelling out of the warning window doesn't mean the end of things.
> Instead, every program she tries -- no matter what it is -- results in the
> onscreen window notifying her that this file (or that file or the other
file,
> no
> matter what) is infected and she should purchase this "unknown" antivirus
> program.
> 
> Can't run Spybot, or download even a new AVG -- can't do nuthin'.
> 
> My good friend Tim (who is also a member of this list) advises me that if
I
> can
> somehow come up with a bootable Vista CD, I should be able to use it to
get up
> and running and then run AVG from a thumb-drive (data-stick, whatever you
call
> it). (My own desktop Windows XP computer is well-protected, so I can
prepare
> the
> thumb-drive that way.)
> 
> But at my office, the IT guy tells me that my plan won't work. And another
guy
> says the best thing to do is remove the hard drive from the Toshiba laptop
and
> cable it directly to my desktop and then run my own scanning software on
it as
> it will be recognized as another drive.
> 
> All of this is logical, but now I don 't know which way to turn. Is Tim
> correct?
> Or it my company's IT guy correct? Or is the last guy correct? School
starts
> here in Gwinnett County (near Atlanta) next Monday, so getting this done
in
> the
> next day or so is the plan.
> 
> -- Ken in metro Atlanta
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