Colin Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Well, having been m/s trained yonks ago, and having dealt with many of my friends' pcs when they have had viruses, put it like this Colin. UNLESS you know every single entry and what the code means in the System Registry and given that viruses have a habit of attaching themselves to different programs, etc., sometimes, and I STRESS sometimes, that is the only way to totally get rid of them. You can run anti-virus softwares to no avail. You can look for a virus removal if available for that particular virus. Many couldn't get rid of the Melissa virus in the early days without doing a complete re-install. In addition, given the number of upgrades on different versions of Windows, you get a lot tidier (and sometimes quicker) system if you do re-install. You've also got the fact that sometimes just re-installing Windows doesn't work - what would you do then? Sometimes it isn't necessary to re-format and do a fresh re-load but sometimes it can be the quickest way of getting rid of a virus for good but as I've said above, NOT in all cases. Hope that explains why - or would you rather spend several hours going through Sysgenedit and the like? Oh goodie, this weekends p*ss*ng contest. I've been working with computers of one kind or another for over 40 years and, I have NEVER recommended re-installing or formatting as a first line of defence and would certainly never do so without having seen the PC in question. Every virus/trojan/malware is removeable if you know what your doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GypsyScy Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Got a fantastic lad by the name of Peter Johnston fae Cunningsburgh who came over and sorted the whole thing for us, would highly recommend him to anyone else need help! Really serious viruses and a bit of a carry on getting rid of it all, saved all my pics and documents and cleaned out the whole comp and started again, which is great! Like having a whole new computer while all my old stuff is on the ext hard drive. Warning to all parents !!! E -Buddy!! My lass clicked a link on that which brought the virus in it took over AVG, corrupted my system restore, hid itself everywhere, last two to find were in my self assessment tax files, particularly nasty virus!!! She's now completely banned from any sort of downloads or links! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unlinkedstudent Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Colin I didn't intend it to be regarded as the FIRST line of defence. Likewise, I offered to go over to see said PC. Alas, and I quite happily admit it, it would appear I don't know as much as you - myself, along with others, when Melissa first came out and before developers had a chance to issue a "fix", couldn't get rid of it. There is no doubt people like yourself you do know every single bit of sysgenedit and the like who are highly competent but many home users aren't as comfortable with going into that. I also remember more than once when friends of mine took their PCs to be fixed as they had frozen, got blue screens, wouldn't boot up, etc. In one particular case, they advised that the hard drive was overheating in her Dell laptop. I had a look at it. She was running on Windows Millennium (ahem) and had got 3 years worth of temporary files. The "expert" had quoted over £150 to fix it. I deleted the temporary Windows and internet files - PC then worked fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewenutz Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 I personally just format and reinstall windows if its a stubborn virus. I wouldrather spend a couple of hours doing that, than spend days and days trying to scan and delete every trace of it. Format is by far the easier and quicker option if you can be bothered. Plus, IMHO it does a computer good to have a total clean up now and again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unlinkedstudent Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Glad to hear you got it sorted which is the main thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apehanger Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 I have to agree with 'unlinkedstudent' and 'ewenutz'. I've found it a lot quicker and easier to reformat and reinstall windoze on friends computers in the past - also gets rid of all those redundant DLLs, and helps shorten bootup time.However I prefer to promote the use of Linux, even my 6 year old daughter has no trouble using it. BTW, what IS a virus?Malware?Seems so long ago since I was last bothered about such things http://www.linuxmint.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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