i recently got a virus on my personal laptop and tried every method possible to remove it without buying a full anti virus for like £50. i used my restore points, factory restored, so on and so forth. it seems that what ever the virus was had gotten into
my memory stick (which has been thrown away) and even my Nokia N900 which is now acting up aswell and needs sending back to Vodafone. i was told by IT at work that the virus can be removed by starting a new account and deleting my old one because
it's contained within the account. that seemed to work to a degree but i kept getting constant pop ups stating i had host process errors, synaptics touch pad errors and the like and my vista operating system seemed to change back to the kind of computer layout
you'd see in the 80's, with the big grey blocks for a start menu haha.
i eventually thought i'd take it to a computer store for repair and see what they quote me. they told me it would be atleast £40 labour charges and then mentioned that because there wasnt some stupid sticker on the bottom of my laptop (which most likely
happens to be my luck that a mate was messing around and peeled it off or something) that i would need a completely new operating system which would cost me close to £100!
he explained that Vista is no longer sold and i could only get Windows 7.
now without being rude, £150 to remove some bugs from a laptop seems absurd and i'd probably be just as well off spending another £150 alongside that and getting a new laptop altogether.
so is it actually true that Vista is no longer sold and if so why? - are Microsoft now just wanting everyone to buy Windows 7?
because to be honest i couldnt care less about my operating system. im a 19 year old lad so theres only three things i need the laptop for - Facebook, Stumbleupon and PORN.
its probably the reason i got the virus in the first place to be honest :')
1) Is this a Dell? - if so, then the COA Sticker that the shop was talking about may well be in the battery compartment, rather than on the outside of the case.
2) You can always get a set of Recovery disks from the manufacturer (£20-50) , and use those to reinstall.
3) MS hasn't sold Vista themselves since the launch of Windows 7 - but there are still copies available in stores. If you purchase a copy, ONLY buy from a reputable store, as many online sellers will be counterfeit.
4) You don't really expect MS to sell more than the latest version of any software? It's like asking why Ford don't still make the Model T.
£40 for a clean-up of a system that's been as badly treated as it seems yours has is pretty cheap. If the shop does anything other than a straight reformat/reinstall they are likely to be losing money on it, as it's probably going to be a good 6 hours
work.
Whoever in your IT department told you that simply creating a new account would rid you of your problems should be fired - it may get rid of some of the simplest malware, temporarily, but it will almost certainly come back again in very short order.
You need to
1) increase your security settings online
2) install and update a decent anti-virus program.
3) install a decent anti-malware program - and use it to scan your system regularly, after updating the definitions.
4) resist the urge to click on everything you see online.
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Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi |
CrashFixPC |
The Three-toed Sloth
