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Another Vista infection
Topic Started: Feb 27 2010, 01:35 PM (194 Views)
Phaedrus
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Had another laptop to fix yesterday. It was running Vista and had Norton (which had recently expired).
Wouldn`t execute Task Manager and was popping up the familiar (false) infection warnings of a rogue.
Scanned and cleaned with MBAM (had to rename both the installer and also the main exe) and Smitfraudfix.

Removed 6 infections. 7 if you count Norton`s which was the hardest thing to get rid of. Had to uninstall it in three sections, which took ages and still left bits of itself behind to manually remove.
After all that there was still a Norton icon on Control Panel (of all places) that was advertising itself. Talk about product placement.
Had to run the special Norton Removal Tool to finally get rid of it. :rolleyes
Installed MSE to replace Norton and did a full scan which found and removed something :shrug

Finished off with my now standard recommendation - switch to Linux Mint or get a Mac. :thumbsup
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John
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TBH mate you would probably be better off just telling people to use their brain and keep using an AV scanner, from experience it isn't the OS that is at fault even if it is Vista it is the plonker using it not keeping up with doing scans and updates and more often than not installing stuff like limewire and opening up emails with attachments etc. As your opening line points out they were using Norton which had expired, not Vistas fault that is it :)
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Phaedrus
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Of course you are right, you can blame the user and say it is ultimately the users fault. It is the way they are using their computers that allows the infections to occur.
However if they switch to a more secure OS they simply would not get infected. End of.

My new tack from now on when someone rings or asks me to clean or repair their computer is to say "I don`t do Windows anymore. Put Linux on or get a Mac".

If they insist on using Windows its their own fault. Take it to PC World.
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Gina
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TBH I think an OS should be "fit for purpose", like anything else! If the system as supplied, complete with web browser etc. isn't capable of resisting attack it isn't "fit for purpose".
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Phaedrus
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I think W7 is a lot more secure than previous incarnations - if its used safely.
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