A Horror Story

alkaufmann

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Last Friday a very old lady (85) asked me to help her with her printer as it was only printing light purple. When I got into her computer it was a disaster. Requests were popping up all over the place and the Internet Explorer was opening up on weird pages and no matter what IP Address you TRIED to type it took you somewhere else. Also it had multiple anti-virus programs installed! I tried uninstalling the junk that had gotten on her system but gave up. I ended up taking her system home, backing up what I could and then formatting drive C:. After 48 hours and more than 250 MS Updates I got it back into working order. As for the inkjet printer, she had not used that for such a long time things got dried up but new cartridges seems to solve the problem.

There are several ways that her system got into this situation. Opening "funny" e-mail attachments, installing something you want and getting "unwanted" programs installed too and getting a phone call from "Microsoft" asking for her password and giving them remote access to her system! I have had a personal computer since 1975 and have never gotten a personal non-robot phone call from Microsoft or Apple! :cry: Also she told me she is the only one that uses her computer but I know that is a BIG lie, how do you say no to your children (devils) and cute grandchildren (little devils) when they visit and want to play games on your computer? They do more than just play games!

Obviously just having an anti-virus program and a firewall is not good enough. I have tried something new, I demoted her from an administrator to a standard user and told her to call me if she run into any problems. So far so good! :D

Maybe Microsoft should offer an All-In-One computer subscription that you can take to a local store to swap, no questions asked?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro WMC
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Masuhr - Black Corsair
    CPU
    Intel I7 4770k
    Motherboard
    ASUS Maximus VI Hero
    Memory
    Corsair Dominator 16GB DD3-1866
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus GTX 660 Ti
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ASUS PA248
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1200
    Hard Drives
    Revodrive 350 480GB
    SSD Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB Sata3
    HDD WD Red 2x2TB Sata3
    PSU
    Corsair 860i
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF X
    Cooling
    Corsair H100i
    Keyboard
    LG G19
    Mouse
    Microsoft Sidewinder X8
    Internet Speed
    DSL
    Browser
    IE
    Antivirus
    MS Defender
    Other Info
    Logitech T650 Touchpad
I see this exact same thing almost every day... Frustrating, isn't it?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 10 Pro 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built Intel i7-3770k-based system
    CPU
    Intel i7-3770k, Overclocked to 4.6GHz (46x100) with Corsair H110i GT cooler
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z77 OC Formula 2.30 BIOS
    Memory
    32GB DDR3 2133 Corsair Vengeance Pro
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 980ti SC ACS 6GB DDR5 by EVGA
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD, Corsair SP2500 speakers and subwoofer
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG 27EA33 [Monitor] (27.2"vis) HDMI
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB (system drive)
    WD 6TB Red NAS hard drives x 2 in Storage Spaces (redundancy)
    PSU
    Corsair 750ax fully modular power supply with sleeved cables
    Case
    Corsair Air 540 with 7 x 140mm fans on front, rear and top panels
    Cooling
    Corsair H110i GT liquid cooled CPU with 4 x 140" Corsair SP "push-pull" and 3 x 140mm fans
    Keyboard
    Thermaltake Poseidon Z illuminated keyboard
    Mouse
    Corsair M65 wired
    Internet Speed
    85MBps DSL
    Browser
    Chrome and Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, MalwareBytes Pro and CCleaner Pro
    Other Info
    Client of Windows Server 2012 R2 10 PC's, laptops and smartphones on the WLAN.

    1GBps Ethernet ports
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