Sunday, July 26, 2015

It Happened

First time ever, I think.

I practice safe computing.  I keep my anti-virus software up to date.  If my browser warns me that a certain web site is dangerous, I stay away.

But I got a virus anyway, or at least a bad case of adware.  Despite backing up gigs and gigs of personal videos, I'm still told that there's 0 MB of free space on my hard drive.  Despite my adblocker software, ads from one particular source now show up on just about every web page.  Sometimes even new tabs will open in my browser.

Computer's been off all day, I have an appt at Best Buy tomorrow to get it cleaned up.  Posting this from the Chromebook right now.

Somehow I'll survive....

7 comments:

Auntie Ann said...

Good luck!

I've spent the last two days rebuilding the software on our computer after a hard drive crash (my first ever). It's a pain!

Luckily, I had advanced warning and backed everything up. Unfortunately, when I reloaded everything, all the permissions were set wrong, and I couldn't access my own files. I think I got that straightened out now.

PeggyU said...

Let me guess: DealWare virus?

I made the mistake of clicking on a link from facebook. I thought I was going to read an article about shark attacks. Didn't get any warnings from Microsoft Security Essentials (which was up to date). Did a full scan, but nothing showed up. History shows nothing being quarantined. I haven't had a problem with pop ups since it happened, though. We do backups routinely, so if something is lurking we will hopefully not lose everything!

Mr. W said...

I am a 100% chrome OS person now. Windows does a few things that I still need it for. But chrome runs kodi now so maybe I will move towards chrome OS full time.

Ellen K said...

My husband lost an entire computer thanks for a virus. Right now ON MY MAC (supposedly impervious to viruses) there's an annoying ad that I can't find the cookie to get rid of it. I honestly don't understand what kind of charge the people who make these things are getting.

Pseudotsuga said...

What was your AV software suite?
I currently am a very satisfied paid subscriber to Kaspersky's Internet Security Suite. Some years back, one of my home PCs was infected in spite of the antiviral software I was using. I tried 4 or 5 different programs; NONE of them had any effect. I tried Kaspersky--it quickly located, identified, and killed the virus. I not only endorse it, but I have it running on all of my home PCs! (One year subscription includes 3 different machines).

Darren said...

I get Kaspersky from my ISP each year.

Looks like a combination of malware and a failing hard drive. Hmm. Time to get a new hard drive. The problem is getting operating system disks. Sheesh.

Pseudotsuga said...

You want a new SSD, don't you...give in to the whispers...