Re: Daughter's computer

["Brian Loe" <knobdy () gmail com>]

On 4/27/06, Drsolly <drsollyp () drsolly com> wrote:
> Is there some? I'm not too keen on installing software that's been written
> and tested and distributed in less than 24 hours.

Decent anti-virus software, yes. Perfect anti-virus software, no.
Norton will catch 99% of what you see in the wild....from my
experience and I'm pretty loose on the 'Net.

> > point her to the various adware and spybot cleaners available - which
> > are also free.
>
> In my experince of a driveby, cleaners didn't and I had to reinstall.

In the case of adware and spybots, the cleaners work very well - and
you should use more than one to make sure you get it all.

> And
> Microsoft says the same. I rather like the idea of following the Microsoft
> recommendation and reinstall Windows,

The quote I read was in reference to rootkits. Viruses, adware and
spyware rise to that level of urgency. I haven't seen any adware or
spyware that installed itself in the boot sectory, for instance,
anyway...

> even though in this case, it means
> I'll be installing Linux (if I can talk her into it).

Linux isn't above adware or spyware - that's a "function" of your
browser, not the underlying OS. Further, she'll lose a lot of
functionality going to Linux if she uses her computer for things like
school or work. Word doesn't translate well - I don't care who says
otherwise.

I finally installed windows back on my laptop after getting fed up
with trying to do my windows work in a VM because the linux
replacements weren't up to par.

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