Re: slowly-spreading, but very annoying problem

From: Malke (malke_at_nospoonnotreally.com)
Date: 03/20/04 

Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 12:50:06 -0800

Handsome Bob wrote:

> The thing is that once a system is corrupted, cleaning out the spyware
> or viruses does not undo the corruption. You could try and do a repair
> install with the xp disk.
>
>
> "Ken" <kmelrose@kc.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:4N%6c.82315$LD5.47779@twister.rdc-kc.rr.com...
>> Please Help!
>>
>>
>>
>> I am seeing what appears to be a slowly-spreading, but very annoying
>> problem. Over the past three weeks, I have had three separate groups
>> of people (including myself) describe a problem their experiencing
>> with their Windows XP systems. There are several similarities in the
>> symptoms being reported.
>>
>>
>>
>> All affected computers -
>>
>> .are running Windows XP
>>
>> .have plenty of processor, memory and disk capacity
>>
>> .have High-Speed cable network connection
>>
>> .have been running efficiently until now
>>
>> .only one user can login, others cannot
>>
>> .detected large number (230-12000) of spy ware related files
>>
>> .have NOT detected any viruses using Norton Anti Virus
>>
>> .have had their TEMP directories cleaned and are now empty
>>
>> .are now protected with Anti Spy and Virus, and Firewall software
>>
>> .are STILL running poorly and experiencing the same problems
>>
>>
>>
>> Can anyone offer any guidance (please) on how we can regain control
>> and performance over my computers?
>>

The thing is that without actually seeing the computers to which you are
referring, no one can give you a complete definitive answer. The fact
that other people have experienced similar symptoms is a non-issue: you
are all running Windows machines, which are vulnerable to spyware and
viruses. In addition, there are lots of other factors contributing to a
system's speed and overall health. That's why the troubleshooting steps
you get from a newsgroup are mostly *general* - when someone has the
sort of symptoms you describe, you always say OK, clean off any
viruses, spyware, empty the TIF files, minimize programs and services
running in the background, etc. That's always the first step. And then
if someone says the machine is still running poorly, it could be a lot
of other things: 1) person could be infected with something like one of
the newer Bagel variants and it was picked up by his av or it broke his
av; 2) person could have failing hardware; 3) person could have 12 usb
devices all powered off his computer which he neglected to mention; 4)
person could have installed all sorts of beta software that has
interacted badly with the core system files. And so on. You see?

So the guidance to having control over your computer is to install
cleanly and only what you need. To do regular software and hardware
maintenance. To run av and a firewall. To not open attachments. To keep
whatever operating system you're running patched with security updates
in a timely fashion. Etc. There's no magic bullet.

HTH,

Malke 

-- 
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"

Relevant Pages

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