poof

A friend running 98SE had horrible problems the last week or so. We would talk over the phone. I loaned them a usb memory key with the "blaster" remover and patch. Didn't have usb (disabled in Gateways BIOS, along with Plug n Play). Rats! I drove a considerable distance. Looked at the Gateway P3 750. Told them to bring it to work tomorrow and I would take it home.

I had to reinstall the OS (used Me, the only 98 disk I happen to have). Ran adaware 6, 86 hits (including Bonzai Buddie, she said her father told her it was cute). Ran Spybot, 27 more attacks, redirects, etc!

They thought Norton had them protected while they were on AOL. I explained viruses vs wormy trojan bombs and sold them on trying Zone Alarm.

They were completely unaware of the assholes out there.

I am not trying to sound smug. It just never struck me in a personal way that people are clueless as to what goes on with their computer(s).

I suppose tech help people could share much worse tales of woe.